Ninaithathu Yaaro (2014)

Ninaithathu Yaaro opens with five youngsters (three boys and two girls) living in the same house, with a board bearing slogans like 'love is more dangerous than a snake' hung on its gate. We are told that all five are love failures and so hate romance. This initial set-up feels straight out of K Balachander's Vaaname Ellai, and we sit back hoping to see how these youngsters' notions on love are changed. To do that, Vikram tells us another story — of Mohan, an aspiring director who reclaims his life because of his now-married lover, Kavitha, and her understanding husband, Arun, which turns out to be the film's primary plot, which has a whiff of Andha 7 Naatkal. Interestingly, the husband is played by Richard, who, in his debut film, Kadhal Virus, played an aspiring director whose lover marries another man due to circumstances. Whatever his shortcomings, Vikraman has always been an earnest filmmaker and this film too has an earnestness that is somewhat admirable. However, he is also a director who seems to be caught in a time warp and so, what should have been an emotional romantic drama that reaffirms our faith in love plays out as a dated film with amateurish performances, unsophisticated filmmaking and needless moralizing. In a scene straight out of his debut Pudhu Vasantham, when Kavitha gets into a car with two males (who are also smoking, by the way) we get reaction shots of Kavitha's neighbours looking derisively. We are told that Kavitha has not slept with Arun despite being married to him for six months, as if that fact alone should make us cheer for Mohan's chances. And, when she tells Mohan that she has decided to get a divorce, Kavitha says that it is better being a vaazhavetti than being in an abusive relationship. So much for trying to make a modern film!