Casts: Karthi, Thamannah, Millind Soman, Jagan, Omar and others

Banner: Tirupathi Brothers

Production: Subash Chandra Bose

Direction: Lingusamy

Music: Yuvan Shankar Raja

Cinematography: Mathi

Editing: Anthony


It’s a wretched situation for audiences, whose hopes have been persistently dashed down on all Fridays. With most of the expected biggies turning to be a letdown, ‘Paiyya’ doesn’t seem to be an elision. Evidently, there isn’t even a single sequence in this film that has a winning over approach.
‘Paiyya’ is nothing but a compilation of Lingusamy’s yesteryear blockbusters ‘Run’ and ‘Sandakozhi’, that had our heroes bashing down the scoundrels in their own dominions. When it was all about ‘Madurai’ in ‘Sandakozhi’, this film reestablishes the same plot in backdrops of Mumbai. Oops! How come our filmmakers take it for granted that Mumbai dons are so frail that even a stranger can barge into this territory and thrash him.
Bounded to lots of unreal sequences makes the journey of Paiyya queasily tumultuous, which should be definitely avoided.
Set in backdrops of Bangalore, the film opens with Shiva (Karthi) falling in love at first sight with Charu (Thamannah). As it happens in every romantic flick, the lad follows the girl and gets transfixed with a song sequence. 20 minutes into the film, we are taken straight into the characters’ conflict with Charu found squeezed in a serious situation. Presuming Shiva to be a chauffeur, Charu’s brawny accompanier asks him to drop them in Chennai. Later, the truth is revealed that Charu is being forced to marry her stepmother’s brother. With a group of Telugu speaking hefty hooligans chasing her, the duo takes a route to Mumbai only to get into a discombobulated situation. Uh-huh! There’s yet another group of Hindi speaking roughnecks tracking them. But this time, it’s not for Charu as Shiva breaks open the truth that they’re hunting down for him.
The flashback sequence reveals that Shiva once had a lockhornsing with Mumbai’s deadliest don (Millind Soman).
Rest of the film proceeds on a predictable note with a usual climax that makes us irresistibly annoyed.
Karthi is still drenched with his ‘Paruthiveeran’ effect as his body language and gestures faintly reminiscences his yesteryear characterization. Perhaps, he has to seriously work on his dance or else quit doing them as the actor keeps repeating the same steps over and again. After wearing the hats of serious roles in his debut film and ‘Aayirathil Oruvan’, his weaker delineation as a clichéd mass-masala hero is disappointing. He has to pick up certain challenging roles as he has the ability to carry them perfectly. Thamannah’s beauteous looks are astounding as it keeps us enwrapped. The other filmmakers have to make sure that she looks so much prettier in their showpieces as well. But again her characterization reminds us heavily off Trisha in ‘Ghilli’. Alas! How could Lingusamy portray Millind Soman with a more sapless nature? He appears not more than 4 scenes and he has nothing to do with 150mins of this flick. Jagan’s hilarious takes and witty-liners are appreciable while a stranger trying to woo down Thamannah on the journey tickles your funny bones.
With an attempt to project every line on poetic shades, Lingusamy has penned dialogues that well-comported for 80s Tamil films. Especially, Karthi’s dialogue that says – I never felt the distance between Mumbai and Bangalore, but now it’s a matter of her house and road that seems to be so far. Oops! Such hokey lines act as a sort of tatterdemalion.
Technically, Yuvan Shankar Raja’s songs offer musical fiestas while Mathi’s cinematography with eye-catching visuals is brilliant. But the picturing of ‘Sutthude Sutthude’ is literally artificial as it is shot at the backdrops of a set.
The first half may somewhat capture the interests of audiences as they wait for the unwrapping of suspense. On contrastive grounds, with an unconvincing flashbacks and Millind Soman being addressed as a ‘Sirippu Villain’ by an audience, you can imagine the final outcome.
On whole, ‘Paiyya’ has no chances of making it big in box office in spite of no competitors left for the clash. Maybe, the vigorous promotions of Cloud Nine Productions may keep it going to a certain extent.


Verdict : A disappointing journey..