1977

Rajasekhar (Sarathkumar) is respected and revered for his sage-like wisdom, pensive nature and his teachings on how to choose peace and harmony in the community over discord. His son Vetrivel (Sarathkumar) is an acclaimed and adored scientist.

His ambition is to bring about developmental changes in the country from the small-community-level upwards, when his father’s sudden and mysterious demise drives him to get to the bottom of the elder’s past. He travels to Malaysia, where he encounters any number of friends and foes. Namitha plays Chandni, a proficient and steamily hot lawyer; Farzana is the leading lady as a glamorous, driven and lovestruck reporter and Vivek provides the giggles for the duration.

Vetrivel is taken by surprise at his father’s eventful past (he had always thought his father to be the serene and un-travelled wise man of his village) and has to take every bull that charges his way by its horns. There are villains galore; their type of evil scheming and plans, a quirky concept. And there is a lot of masala throughout the movie.

Sarath Kumar’s acting has always been good, regardless of the storyline or treatment. In 1977 too, it is the same. Surprisingly, despite the ample female pheromones floating around the film and lots of steamy skin show, he doesn’t come across as a randy newbie. He is quite restrained and pleasant to watch. Of course, it is rare to find a man of his years in the industry taking such good care of his physique as RSK has…


Farzana is a bit much as the scantily clad, righteous and ambitious reporter, but the masses, we hear will definitely love her. She’s done a pretty good job for the canvas she has worked in, so perhaps we will see more of her in Tamil cinema.

Namitha is a bombshell lawyer. Buxom, beautiful and every man’s secret dream, she provides enough glamour for the entire movie. Thankfully, she has a good enough role as a woman with intelligence and a responsible career and is no floozy.

Sandhya Shetty, model and actress from Mumbai, steps in for a sizzling song with Sarath. She’s tall, dusky and quite an eyeful. We hope this is her break to sign up more Southern projects!
Vivek, of course, is Vivek. “Thatthuva comedy” is his style and he lets loose some decent, laugh-worthy lines.

The concept is mildly borrowed from James Bond The World Is Not Enough – watch the movie and you will see why.

What we like about the movie are its very flaws. Debut director Dinesh Kumar, who is also an ad-filmmaker has used his ad-sense and created the racy storyline. He has made no bones or pretensions about what kind of movie it is. It is entertaining, flows pretty well and ends in a feel-good and interesting manner. He has put in the right mixture of formula, some new angles, loads of action, comedy and glamour and has even ended it with a fun candid camera credits stream. A combination, we feel, is far better than movies which harp on about how phenomenally different they are but end up being, as they say in Chennai, “semmai blade”! Good job, director!

Points to ponder:
The music is peppy and in tune with the mood of the movie, but the numbers are not very memorable. The costumes of the three ladies were usually either tight or small or both, but to give the costumer (the director’s wife) her due credit, since the visuals achieved their purpose, this too can be accepted.