Thottal poo malarum Cast: Shakthi, Gowri Munjal, Rajkiran, Suganya, Vadivelu, Nazer Direction: P. Vaasu Music: Yuvan Shankar Raja Production: Sapphire Media & Infrastructure Just a simple question before we delve into the review. What would be the most important criteria to become a star in Tamil cinema? Good looks, acting skills, neat at action sequences, receptive to emotional scenes and emote well, and hail from a star family. If these could just be termed as the criteria, P.Vasu’s son Shakthi has made sure that he passes all these with finesse. Apparently, P.Vasu, for his son’s debut film, is in no mood to take any risk and takes the same beaten to death route of a ‘poor boy meets a rich girl and love blossoms’ formula. And, predictably, the heroine’s mother comes in between the lovebirds and how the two join hands forms the rest of the story.

If one enters the movie halls wanting to see a sensible movie or one with logic, chances are more likely that the result would be sheer disappointment. This is a movie made especially to showcase the talents of the debutant Shakthi and he doesn’t disappoint thankfully. The movie does have some interesting scenes, as all the love sequences with the heroine and the hero are very well thought of. The female lead in the movie Gowri Munjal, devises many codes for the hero to break, and especially the scene where the hero cracks the heroine’s code to find out her telephone number is intuitive. And added to that, the director has also come up with a series of scenes where the usage of codes is sure to be lauded by the audience. P. Vasu’s innovative communication methods are sure to be lapped up by youngsters.

Performance of all the stars are noteworthy. Rajkiran appears as Vandaiyar Varadharajan, a Mumbai dada and as always he doesn’t disappoint. Sukanya as the rich widow does a neat job too. Gowri Munjal is just passable and one couldn’t stop but think that she could have done the love scenes with a bit more enthusiasm. Vadivel does tickle our funny bone doing the same act once again. Santhanam plays his part perfectly and his one liner to tease Nasser is sure to bring down the house. Nasser as Shakthi’s father has done a good job. One has little choice but to agree that except one or two songs, the music scored by Yuvan Shankar Raja - the man with a Midas touch, is a big let down. Vaali has penned all the songs leaving nothing special on that front to rave about.

Aagash Ashok kumar handles the camera, and he does an exquisite job. Four choreographers namely Raju sundaram, DKS Babu, Noble and Bhasker have brought out the best from the hero. Fight sequences are also worth a mention. If Shakthi gleans his potential in this arena, an action hero would soon be in the making. Shakthi has a good future though he tends to go overboard sometimes. Besides, P.Vasu takes the audience for granted, perhaps snowed under the success of his previous movies that resulted in overconfidence. If the director has concentrated a fraction of attention to the story and screenplay rather than just Shakthi, this movie could have been better. Verdict - If you have time to kill