Simmba

Simba, which is billed as Tamil cinema's first stoner comedy, revolves around Mahesh (Bharath), a dopehead who leads a lonely life. It is this reason, the film tells us, that has turned him towards drugs - for instant dopamine hit. One Sunday, when Mahesh has taken a 'hit', his neighbour Madhu (Bhanu Sri Mehra) requests him to look after her pet Great Dane, Simba. To Mahesh, who is under the influence of the drug, Simba (Premgi Amaren) appears as a person. The rest of the film is all about how Mahesh bonds with Simba and how they try to make Madhu fall in love with him.

As a stoner film, Simba is interesting when it begins. With PoV shots, abrupt cuts and jarring music, director Arvind Sridhar tries to get us into the headspace of a stoner and conveys the disorientation and hallucination that dopeheads feel. One particular visual of the employees in Mahesh's office resembling cooped-up hens makes for a great sight gag. These visuals help get us to instantly buy into the film’s device of a man dressed up as a dog. 

But just like a stoner who loses track of things, the film begins to go astray. Part of the problem is that the plot is too thin, and so, very often the film resembles a short film stretched into a feature-length film. The stakes are so low, and the characters and the sub-plots are hardly interesting. Madhu is hardly developed as a character, so we are never invested in Mahesh's romance. We are left only with barely a handful of positives, like the quirkiness of dogs speaking in the voices of actors like Raghuvaran, VS Raghavan, Shiva, K Bhagyaraj, Suruli Rajan, and Jai. Even the novelty of seeing Premgi, who tries to make things funny even with the limited material, playing a dog wears off after a while.