SJ Suryah and Priya Bhavani Shankar in a still from ‘Bommai’ | Photo Credit: Special Arrangement
When the love of his life suddenly vanishes, a man lives in denial as his mental health deteriorates. That’s a one-liner from the Kamal Haasan-Rati Agnihotri 1980 classic glee pervaigal And it is also the basis of Radha Mohan’s latest film bommai, starring SJ Suryah and Priya Bhavani Shankar. The famous ‘Dheevega Ragam’ track from the yesteryear film, composed by Ilaiyaraaja, gets a new rendition bommai Thanks to his son Yuvan but the similarities between the films stop there.
In bommai, SJ Suryah plays Rajkumar, a mannequin painter whose art makes the dolls look as real as they are made to emulate humans. When he skips the prescribed psychiatric drugs, he sees his lost childhood sweetheart Nandini in a mannequin, whose face has a blemish resembling Nandini’s mole. The story of how far he will go to get back the love he lost bommai,
Bommai (Tamil)
Director: Radha Mohan
mould: SJ Suryah, Priya Bhavani Shankar, Chandini Tamilarasan
runtime: 145 minutes
Story: A man falls in love with a mannequin, imagining it to be his childhood sweetheart. Will he be able to reunite with his one true love?
It is no secret that Suriya is a tremendous performer; In the last five years alone, he has demonstrated his mettle, even when playing villains (such as Spider, Mersal, Nenjam Marappathillai Or you don’t have), a supporting character (leader) or hero (Demon And Vadhandhi: The Fable of Veloni, but the unique story of bommai, completely mounted on its lead cast, is the perfect platform for him to go bonkers and he does exactly that. His small efforts to get Nandini back feel like small victories and every time he fails, it tugs at our heartstrings.
Priya, on the other hand, has given one of her best performances in recent times. However, given how little importance their characters have been given in the last few films, that’s a relatively simple criteria to achieve. bommai Provides him with a reasonably wide canvas. Seeing how Nandini is a figment of the prince’s imagination, she not only asks questions that the prince already has the answers to, but also becomes an extension of his true self. When he is angry, she calms him down and when he feels helpless, she becomes angry. the chemistry between the leads reminded me of fight Clubexcept the obvious fold (Another Kamal Haasan film) Seeing which you will not be able to live without comparison bommaiand some other psychological thrillers like kadhalil vizhunthen, The biggest force behind the camera is undoubtedly Yuvan’s songs and background score. Apart from the ‘Dheevega Ragam’ rendition, which is both divine and challenging at the same time, the track ‘Mudhal Mutham’ in Yuvan’s voice is one song that should have gone viral by now, due to the film’s use of it.
SJ Suryah in a still from ‘Bommai’ | Photo Credit: Special Arrangement
On the other hand, the film, unfortunately, does a lot against it instead. For starters, despite being poignant, the plot is too thin to justify the film’s runtime; The film is dragged until it is cinematically impossible to slow it down. Apart from the lead actors, the rest of the characters are painfully one-dimensional. One is Priya (Chandini Tamilarasan), a character who likes Rajkumar but never gets closure. A man is killed who is said to have links to the organ trade and this leaves us hoping that he will tie into the story of little Nandini’s kidnapping but that subplot gets buried with him. We also have the usual friend of the protagonist who goes to the extent of visiting the prince’s physician more often than the patient. Then there’s a store manager whose job consists only of sexualizing mannequins and creeping up to the female employees.
The scenes with the lead cast create some of the best moments of the film but that’s not all. bommai wants us to focus. There is also an investigation angle which almost feels like a cop-based thriller that our film industry is churning out at regular intervals. It’s hard to believe that humour, one of Radha Mohan’s strongest suits, fails to work bommaiDespite coming right after his criminally underrated comedy film Malaysia to Amnesia.
bommai, despite an intriguing premise, falls prey to the clichés of melodramatic love stories. Despite some great performances from the lead pair, the clichéd and predictable writing drags the film down like a rag doll.
Bommai is now running in theaters