Adra Machan Visilu (2016)

Given that it stars Shiva and Power Star Srinivasan, you might think that Adra Machan Visilu is a comedy, but the film is actually more of a drama — one that would have seen out-of-date even 20 years ago, because of how it is narrated. The irony is that the film does have something to say, especially in this age of mindless fan wars on social media, but the director has an archaic sense of filmmaking, and turns this into a painful film to sit through. The plot revolves around Sekar (Shiva), Ahmed (Arun Balaji) and Babu (Sentrayan) who are diehard fans of Power Star (Power Star). Sekar falls in love with Devi (Naina Sarkar) and to show the girl's father that he can be responsible, he, along his two buddies, decides to distribute his idol's film. But the film is a disaster and the three face heavy losses. They approach the star to compensate them, but he just ignores them. So, they decide to teach him a lesson. There are dialogues that constantly take a dig at Rajinikanth (from the distributors demanding compensation to a director narrating a scene involving a snake that goes into the heroine's bathroom) and Thiraivannan seems to believe that using a few contemporary instances will make his film topical as well. But given how shoddily the film is made with no sense of pacing or continuity, these lines only feel like a desperate attempt to strum up some publicity. The director keeps jumping from one scene to the other in such a random fashion that you never get involved in the story. His attempts at comedy is also cringe-worthy, and the characterisation of Mansoor Ali Khan, as a money-minded doctor who cannot keep his hands off his nurses, is in bad taste. Even Shiva, who can be wonderful at deadpanning, is given with very little to do. As for Power Star Srinivasan, you just have to ask in John Oliveresque fashion, 'How is this still a thing?'