Vinnaithaandi Varuvaayaa

If you are looking forward to reading yet another review that is going to rave about this movie, then go ahead and skip reading this post.

Stunning locations & the vibrant colours of Trisha’s lovely costumes captured beautifully on camera and, of course, the songs and the background music are all I liked in Vinnaithaandi Varuvaayaa. I just loved the BGM parts that had Aaromale and Hosanna.

I had really expected that ‘Young Super Star’ (!)Simbu would be bearable in this movie. But no. I didn’t like his dialogue delivery at all. Add to it Simbu lip-syncing for Rahman’s voice in Mannipaya and butchering the evergreen ‘Pa Sa Ni Sa Ni Sa’ from Bombay even if only for hardly a few seconds! But this is not the main reason why I didn’t like the movie.

It wasn’t just the second half or the ending or the scene after scene showing Trisha’s confusions either.

From the moment Simbu sees Trisha for the first time, he keeps ogling at her scene after scene and then says he is in love with her and then all he wants to do is stare at/touch/kiss her. If this is how a love story is going to unfold, then it is definitely not going to appeal to me. Simbu doesn’t even have a convincing answer when she asks if it’s all about her beauty or something like that. He says that there is a magical chemistry between them. But I didn’t find either the chemistry between them or the love story or Simbu’s dialogue delivery when he says that line having anything magical in it. And that resulted in me losing my patience to sit through the second half. A scene or two could have definitely been cut.

Apart from that, almost every line that Trisha says to Simbu has ‘Karthik’ appended to it at the end. I felt it somehow made some scenes a bit artificial. Coming to the picturization of songs, the similar group dance sequences for almost every song were boring. Some of the scenes in the first half featuring Ganesh which were enjoyable weren’t there in the second half to act as the saviour either.

If only there had been a convincing love story in the beginning and there had been better initial courting scenes, I might have liked the movie. I felt the characterization of Trisha and her confusions about whether to let go of her love or not which have been so painstakingly portrayed deserved a stronger love story than this one.

31 thoughts on “Vinnaithaandi Varuvaayaa

  1. Madhusudhanan.J

    awesome awesome.. finally someone to my rescue 😛 hehe firstly I loved trisha in the movie.. the songs and the BGM were awesome 😀 i loved every scene trisha was there! was not a big fan of her pehle.. but trust me she looked soooo [the o’s will tell u how awesome she looked in the movie! 😛 ] good!Cmon give credit to the guy.. hez done decently well in this movie.. compared to his other movies.. he did act well[at times yeah.. he did act].. but ya crappy storyline and some what predictable climax.. did ruin the movie a lil !but when you watch this movie after watching Goa and nanayam you’ll definitely feel the way I felt! 😛

    Reply
  2. Gowri

    //From the moment Simbu sees Trisha for the first time…….If this is how a love story is going to unfold, then it is definitely not going to appeal to me.//

    I strongly agree with this. Thanks for the review. One more good reason for me not to go for this movie. I’d rather enjoy watching goa again.. 🙂

    Reply
  3. Hari

    Have come across your blog before. Chanced upon it again, searching for VTV. And ironically, both of us reviewed the movie at the same time! 😀 Check out my review here.

    Respect your view point. Refeshing way of looking at things. Wasn’t convincing though. 🙂

    Cheers!

    – Hari.

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  4. SUGAN

    Full of gowtham’s trademarks… mechanical engineer hero, songs with foreign dancers,heroine who speaks like a ‘robot’….. Lengthy conversations between the lead pair in the second half makes us go mad… specially the one that happens in front of trisha’s house….

    All said we can give this movie a try just for the exotic locations, background score and songs that will make u fall in love, ganesh who makes u laugh at times, of course trisha for her looks in the movie and there are no villains to damage u’r ear drum….

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  5. PrasadC

    You are being “gentle” in this review. I couldn’t stand this movie. Waste of time & money. Colors may be the only saving grace. Stories these days revolve around the “Hero”, this story seems to revolve around the director and is of an order of magnitude worse than the former.

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  6. Uthaman

    Basically the review can not be anything better is , the hero is not suitable for romance and nuances of romance.Besides always his modulation is absolutely flat with regard to his voice.
    He is found to be some kind of masalaa overdone for his age.Roasted and wasted.

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  7. Veen

    Nice and accurate review…I don’t understand why the entire crew declared it a super-hit already!! Has the standard of love stories gone so low?? I also think love stories aren’t simply working for Gautam (atleast liked the Vivek’s track in Minnale), it’s not that serious directors shouldn’t attempt love themes (look at Mani’s Alaipayuthey for a love story) Gautam hasn’t matured yet to make a good convincing love story is what I think…Anyways if I compare this with Simbu’s earlier performances may be very miniscule difference but nothing to warrant a “avardhu bhayangara different performance” statement, same holds for Trisha!!

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  8. Vind

    Wow! Glad to find people thinking along the lines that I did! Firstly, excellent review. To my dismay, I hardly found any “chemistry” between the Trisha and Simbu. Quite a shame to be classified under the genre of romance. Also I totally agree with Madhusudhan. Trisha was breath taking (looks wise). I was surprised ’cause I generally don’t fancy her. Simbu was a disappointment as usual. The first half was bearable thanks to the friend camera man, whom we can pass off as a comedian. Second half was atrocious! No story and to make things worse, another song at the blink of the eye! GVM should have made better use of the wonderful BGM, music and camera, which by virtue of their pure brilliance themselves could have been instrumental in kindling the emotions of the viewers. Unfortunately his story line, dialogues, direction and Simbu’s acting nullified the effects of these! And Gautham.. please increase the pace of your movies.. or we’ll use them to substitute sleeping pills.

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  9. Tej

    I watched this movie (that too FDFS) only for the music. Managed to pull through the entire movie with strategically planned power naps. The dialogues and acting looked and felt phony. This Jesse kept changing her mind so many times, I felt like throwing my chappal on the screen. The most irritating character award must go to Simbu’s camera man friend. And Gautham’s self referential tips on movie making made me want to hurl out profanities but I suppressed it with super human effort. Others in the theatre (Abirami) were not as restrained as me.

    And this movie became a HIT ???!!

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  10. bhachi

    Men are simple and women are complex. When it comes to love, man proposes to a woman with plain heart and with no complications. …Women, on the other hand make simple things complicated with their complex behaviour.

    #VTV

    Reply
  11. suresh arvind

    well, i was waiting for so many days to read a review like this. i saw the movie FDFS in delhi ( i just hated it and was totally disappointed), when i returned to chennai a week the same movie was talked about like a cult classic in all the tv channels. i was actually wondering if they were even talking about the same movie. just wondering if they were all paid to say all this?…somewhere i read an article comparing goutham with mani ratnam. just wanted to kill the guy who wrote the article.

    and kb’s letter to goutham was sillier. whatever he wrote was never there on the screen!! i find all this too made up…..

    the movie was just bull. period.

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  12. Sriram

    Very True… Pointless Movie! We have quite seen quite a no of great love stories like Mouna Ragam, Rajapaarvai, Alaipayuthey etc etc to even something like Mozhi which had interesting moments. There have been people/critics praising the movie to sky high… Not sure if I have failed to see some substance that they saw. I didn’t like the treatment too, appreared way too pretentious for me. The quote “Ulagathule evlavo ponn irundhum…” was so pathetic as if so many girls are waiting in queue for this loser of a guy who drops his Engg job for becoming a film director. How cliched!
    I am not sure if this movie can come anywhere close to the league of these movies!

    Reply
  13. Sathej

    Haven’t seen the movie, but still

    //for this loser of a guy who drops his Engg job for becoming a film director//

    That doesn’t make someone a loser right !?

    Sathej

    Reply
  14. Aparna

    Madhusudhanan,
    I know that all guys loved Trisha in this movie 😛 I haven’t watched any Simbu’s movie except this one.

    Gowri,
    Welcome to my blog! There are a lot of people who like this movie. So who knows you might like it too if you watch it.

    Hari,
    Belated welcome to my blog then! I read your review.

    Sugan,
    Agreed that the locales, BGM & the colours do deserve to be watched in a good theatre.

    Prasad,
    Colours is one of the main things that I too really liked in the movie.

    SK,
    🙂

    Uthaman,
    Welcome to my blog!

    s w a t,
    As I have replied to some other comment earlier, you should have watched this in a theatre just for the colours, cinematography & the music.

    Reply
  15. Aparna

    Veen,
    Welcome to my blog! Isn’t it a hit? So many people seem to like the movie. I too liked Vivek’s comedy in Minnale. I also liked the scenes featuring Suriya & Jothika in Kaakka Kaakka.

    Vind,
    Welcome to my blog! Thanks.

    Tej,
    Almost every review that I have read till now seems to mention about those Gautham’s self-referential scenes! So he must be glad that he had included those scenes.

    Suresh,
    Welcome to my blog! Even I can’t stand people comparing Gautham Menon with Mani Ratnam!

    Sriram,
    Even I can’t understand what makes many label this movie as a great love story!
    > as if so many girls are waiting in queue for this loser of a guy
    LOL I didn’t like the quote either.

    Reply
  16. Pushpa

    Good review!!!!…..nice comments

    Awesome trisha with confusion character…And Simbu, OMG!!…mm one thing we’ve to agree..he danced (Not jumped)

    Reply
  17. kavya

    that song mannippaaya wud have fitted when she says no finally right.
    y was the song in middle when she broke her marriage for him, I din understand that.

    Reply
  18. Bharath

    This may sound sacrilegious especially in my comeback post on your blog, but I thought VTV was a very mature effort by Gautham Menon and is as close to a Mani Ratnam film as he ever can get… I thought Simbu did a good job as the boy next door and Surya / Maddy would have glammed the role too much…

    Music was haunting especially Mannipaaya…

    Reply
  19. Rathi

    Nice review Aparna. I thought I was the only one who found the dialogues extremely artificial (adding Karthik to every sentence is a perfect example). And what is it with Simbu talking like he has some food in his mouth? I guess I am still in the minority who found Trisha looking more tired and haggard than usual, although she had her clothes on most of the time! (Again, I have never considered her a looker!).
    Gautham Menon is bad at song picturizations. He has a stock group of poor white women who make some weird moves in the name of dance in the background!

    Reply
  20. Aparna

    Bharath,
    Long time! 🙂 I thought you had stopped reading my blog since I don’t write about Mani Ratnam’s movies nowadays. 😉 I can’t believe that you are among the ones who compare this movie with Mani Ratnam’s films!!

    Rathi,
    Thanks. I didn’t think Trisha looked tired. Yes, except for a few songs, I too have never been a fan of his song picturizations.

    Reply
  21. Sathej

    Finished watching this movie today..(watched in parts whenever I had time:)) and found it quite ok 🙂 Usually don’t like purely romantic movies, but thought this one was good..

    Sathej

    Reply
  22. Abdul

    I got a chance to view the movie only yesterday (that too a pirated download!) though I had been longign to see this one since I first saw the snapshots of Trisha and Chimbu sitting at the ODE cafe, almost 2 years back!.

    To be frank: my goose bumps did no fade away in the first half. Second half I don’t even remember what were the twist and turns. So I have decided to watch it again (as I don’t have to pay for it and I had plenty of time this weekend).

    Things I would like to mention:

    It was not convincing that Trisha is 23, she looked bit older than that! (I am a Trisha fan too!). She was more lovable in Bheema!

    Chimbu’s dialogue delivery was a good one if you compare with his other movies.

    I did not find the dialogue as an artificial one, I wonder would I have told the same to my love (if I had one 8 years back!)

    Locations, Colors and the extra artists were marvellous, especially the way they shot Alleppey at different natural lights! Though I have seen many movies shot at this location before, they were not so fantastic as this one.

    Costumes: I found chimbu in most of the scenes in a whilte trouser and a brown T / shirt! Wonder if she had budget constraints to buy more goods for him or she just forgot his part as she was busy trying to make Trisha look younger!

    Bond of Love: I believe I had over expectation! But it failed to satisfy my greed to watch a love story! Those pain giving affectionate scenes were totally abscent! Wonder if Goutham’s attempt was to define his own version of a love story!

    The Scene I didn’t like: Trisha after the “Its over, go away” sms, failed to portray her love, she was as confused as the viewers whether to love or leave this guy!

    Goutham, you should consider that there are other courses for your Heroe’s to study than Mechanical Engineering (Minnale, V Aayiram adn VTV). You will be remebered for V aayiram..

    Waiting to see Chennail oru mazhakkalam..

    Aparna, sorry to write my review on your blog, I have not yet started my own one.

    Reply
  23. Sathyaram

    Great review. In fact the netizens have been pouring praise on this movie artificially saying Simbu has not learnt to crawl… my god this is a waste movie . And the audacity of GVM deserves him to have continuos flops for the next 10 movies

    Reply

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