RajiniMurugan (2016)

Rajini Murugan reinforces what we had learned from Varuthapadatha Vaalibar Sangam — director Ponram has a flair for entertaining us even with a story that sounds dated and cliched. The film actually feels like more of what we had seen in the earlier one (the director even finds a way to link the two films in the climax), but posses a sense of joie de vivre that lifts it up and keeps us amused. As for the plot, it revolves around Rajini Murugan (Sivakarthikeyan), a happy-go-lucky (Tamil cinema slang for wastrel) youngster, whose only care in the world is to marry Karthika (Keerthy Suresh), his childhood sweetheart. Unfortunately, their once friendly fathers are now not on talking terms. So, with his friend Thothadri (Soori) in tow, he starts wooing her. Meanwhile, Yezharai Mookkan (Samuthirakani), a thug (of sorts), tries to get a share of Murugan's ancestral property by defaming his grandfather Ayyankaalai (Rajkiran). Of course, everything ends well. And no, this isn't a spoiler. Something for everyone seems to be Ponram's philosophy here and so, he gives us romance, songs, villainy, family melodrama — all laced with a touch of comedy and presented to us in eye-poppingly bright visuals (the cinematographer is Balasubramaniem). Rajkiran has fun playing the patriarch and also gets a scene in the end to get us all emotional. Yezharai Mookkan does not come across as the kind of villain who needs to be feared and Samuthirakani plays this role with the right amount to seriousness so that we don't discount his threats entirely either. As for Sivakarthikeyan and Soori, they seem to have picked up from where they left off in Varuthapadatha Vaalibar Sangam. True their shtick is a bit predictable but they manage to deliver the laughs. And, of course, the film is overlong with innumerable songs and comic scenes that could have been left at the editing table. It is also utterly unambitious, content with clearing its low bar, but this unpretentiousness is also what makes it work to an extent.