Unnale Unnale - Review

By: Settu Shankar
Tuesday, April 17, 2007
Nowadays there are two categories of youngsters living in the urban areas. On one hand there is a group of students hailing from the rural areas in and around the campus of a govt college, having unfulfilled dreams and the other category is of the sophisticated white- collared IT professionals. This film is primarily meant for the latter category, as it is a glitzy, hi-tech love story, a brainchild of the director Jeeva.

This category of rich youngsters, bereft of any hardships, lives in a state of perpetual euphoria and only believes in love and merry-making. They don't have time to even think about human values. Girls-Love-Friends-Pizza huts-Pubs are the Panchathanthiras for them, and they lead a lavish lifestyle. The ultimate aim of such people is to fly to the U.S., U.K. or Australia after completing their studies in India. Director Jeeva is the true representative of this utopian world and he has been trying to prove this right from his first film 12 B. He is only bothered about the young guys living in and around the upmarket ECR or the Tidel Park area!

Unnale Unnale is an urban romantic story which revolves around a young software engineer and two beautiful girls who come into his life. In other words, the story looks like a hi-tech version of AVM's Minsaara Kanavu. Many of the scenes have been lifted straight from various English and Hindi movies, but the craft work of Jeeva make the movie watchable.

Vinay, a fun loving and mischievous software engineer and Sada, an IT professional, fall in love after their first meet at a temple. But soon, after many rifts between them, they discover that they are not made for each other. Vinay's intolerable links with girls and Sada's unlimited possessiveness becomes a cause for their separation. One day Vinay departs for Melbourne regarding some work. Tanisha, a bubbly and a fun loving girl introduces herself to him during the flight and both get closer towards the end of their journey. Unexpectedly, he meets Sada at the Melbourne airport, where the latter has come to receive Tanisha. After knowing all the facts about Vinay and Sada, Tanisha tries to patch up the differences between the two former lovers. But her efforts go in vein. At the same time she slowly falls in love with Vinay. Finally, Sada takes a decision to end the drama. Do the lovers rejoin again? What happens to Tanisha? See the answers on the silver screen.

Nowadays there is an unwritten rule for the role of a city based hero. He should be tall, and have dirty looks with a 3 days unshaven face. He should have at least half a dozen girl friends around him to have fun with. A new face, Vinay, perfectly reflects the same attitude, and establishes himself as the representative of modern youth, an IT geek. In appearance, he is a mixture of Madhavan and Surya, and is very apt for this subject. However, he should concentrate more on his dialogue delivery. But who cares about this? Kollywood never bothers about the language proficiency of any hero who enters the tinsel World. Can anybody expect this gesture from any of the other southern filmdoms? In fact, knowing Tamil perfectly is considered a disqualification for a hero by few directors like Jeeva!

Sada is playing the role of the lead lady after a gap and steals the show as the possessive, self-centered working woman of today, who knows what she wants in life. She has done full justice to her character and her looks also cheer the audiences.Tanisha plays the role of Deepika and suits well in her role. She is a perfect reflection of modern girls. Raju Sundaram and Srinaath also appear in some scenes and try to provide some comic relief.

Cameraman Jeeva outperforms Director Jeeva in many scenes. He has shoot the locales of Melbourne beautifully, and serves an unforgettable feast for the viewer's eyes. The music scored by Harris Jayaraj is quite forgettable for the normal viewers. But two of the 5 songs can be enjoyed only if the theater has a good sound system; otherwise they would sound very jarring to the ears.

Unnale Unnale particularly targets the migrant youth, not the sons of the soil. But unfortunately, the box-office success is largely determined by the latter category only.

Banner: Oscar Movies
Cast: Vinay, Sada, Tanisha, Raaju Sundaram
Music: Harris Jayaraj
Photography, Screenplay, Dialogues and Direction: Jeeva
Verdict: Far from the local culture, and strictly for urban youth