Plan Panni Pannanum HD Released

 

As in his previous film, Semma Botha Aagathey, director Badri Venkatesh has a premise that is certainly interesting. Two friends, Sembi (Rio Raj) and Raju (Balasaravanan), end up kidnapping a girl (Ramya Nambeesan) to know about the whereabouts of one of their sister (Poornima Ravi), who has eloped with her boyfriend (Siddharth Vipin). The intention seems to have been to make a wacky, entertaining comedy. The director, who has co-scripted the film with G Radhakrishnan, has a few ideas that are funny, at least at the script level... a bride-seeing event that spoofs Paasa Malar, a driver (Pazhaya Joke Thangadurai) who offers to give the protagonists a short ride ending up travelling with them all the way to Kodaikanal, a guy who shoots videos of men in a state of undress and blackmails them, the manager (MS Bhaskar) of a glamorous star (Anaika Soti), who is taken for a ride by the friends, who owe him money, a monologue by the sister (Poornima Ravi is quite impressive in this scene), which is amusing, even though its representation of a young woman from a supposedly downmarket locality like Royapuram is troubling.

The problem is, many of the things that might have appeared funny on paper do not translate to the screen or remain just ideas. And after starting out as a comedy, the film begins to veer into melodrama in its third act, with a sub-plot about the emancipation of the heroine (her father, played by a solid Aadukalam Naren, wants to get her married while she aspires to go to the US for work) and a totally unnecessary antagonist (Marimuthu, who vanishes after a couple of scenes). The writing cannot match the ambition in the premise. Even the comedy is mainly built on rhyming dialogues ("ava erangi poita... naan kerangi poiten", "body hulk maadhiri but heart silk maadhiri", "angry... jangri", "aari pogum... naari pogum") and double entendres. And there are times when the characters just go on talking non-stop and you begin to tune out this chatter.

Technically, too, the film looks very generic; at least Semma Botha Aagatha had flashy filmmaking to keep us hooked. The actors, however, do well. Rio Raj manages to be effective in the comic scenes while Ramya Nambeesan scores in the dramatic ones. The romantic track between them, however, doesn't work. It would have been refreshing if the film had chosen to portray them as just acquaintances who become friends after an adventurous journey. Balasaravanan, despite the loudness in his dialogue delivery, is decent while Pazhaya Joke Thangadurai manages to acquit himself well. It is only Robo Shankar and Munishkanth who fall short, playing characters who are once again juvenile inside and 0utside.