Neethaane En Ponvasantham/Yeto Vellipoyindhi Manasu - Forget VTV/YMC

 

Gautam Vasudev Menon is playing yet another game of Romance, Mush and Love bites. The previous time he played it, we got an unreal tale of unreal romance with unreal situations and a hocus pocus screenplay(Yeah, I am referring to Vinnaithaandi Varuvaaya(VTV)/Ye Maaya Chesaave(YMC)). Also, the trailer of this film was laced with a dangerous sense of familiarity. One small consolation might come with the fact that the music, scored this time by Maestro Ilayaraja, though not as refreshing as Rahman Saab's music in the former, is lilting to say the least and has already made waves. So, will this attempt at sweeping romance be the undeserving triumph that VTV/YMC was? The answer is a clean no folks. NEP/YVM is the perfect fodder for the romantic in you. It is sweepingly and arrestingly romantic.

Plot:
The plot offers nothing new. The story is about a couple who have been smitten with each other since childhood. Their relationship is in no way a smooth ride. But love matures with the people nursing it. But as the couple reach adulthood, ego and household glitches come in the way. Amidst fall outs in every stage of life, it remains to be seen if the couple will remain a couple or will they fall out for eternity.

Performances:
This film is mainly driven by the sometimes sober sometimes melodramatic performances of the two leads, Jeeva/Nani and Samantha. Samantha looks ravishing to say the least. The movie is not about the leads as a plural but the couple as a singular. The leads performances gel together perfectly to achieve that singularity. The pair has effectively brought out the budding, flowering and fully grown stages of love with all it's imperfections. Had the performances been inferior, the movie would have lost much of its sheen. The comic relief provided by Santhanam/Krishnudu and Vidyulekha Raman(Jenny) is sure to bring grins and chuckles. The rest of the cast has nothing much to do. The 4 central performances are perfect to the book and hence there is no scope for goof ups in the acting department.

Screenplay and Direction:
Gautam Menon dishes out his best in 6 years with this film. Since this movie is centered around the emotions of the central characters, the screenplay had to be a well pieced sequence of events in which these emotions could be brought out. The screenplay achieves this with near perfection.The screenplay allows ample space for the director to move at a glacial pace and let the viewer drink in each scene. The smooth and deliberate pacing that marred VTV/YMC acts as the perfect agent for the movie to develop gradually and healthily on the viewer.  Small glitches are evident though. The second half is filled with quarrels between the lead couple to the point that the viewer might get slightly impatient. The squabbles are also dragged out and the panoramic camerawork at this point is a bit distracting. Also, the narration is slightly marred by the quick succession in which the songs are placed in the second half. The only big goof up is the way the director tends to root more for the male in the couple and the way he bogs down the female character to apologise for mistakes that both of them had comitted over the course of ther love affair. The climactic portions have a typical Gautam Menon signature on them.

Technical work:

The music provided by Maestro Ilayaraja is soothing and suits the movie. Ilayaraja has given his best Kollywood'Tollywood album in years. Expect him to be nominated this time in various popular awards. The lyrics by Na. Muthukumar/Anantha Sriram are poetic. The editing is perfect. No scene seems out of place nor does anything seem to be missing. All other technical details are adequate to the hilt.

Snapshot:
NEP/YVM celebrates the various stages of love with the subtlety that was missing in VTV/YMC. It carries the feel good sensation with sweeping romance. For all the romantics out there, this one is a trasure trove. Even for the hardcore realists, this one is not a bad one. It will leave big smiles in your face. Pure blissful cinema from Gautam Menon. One of his best.

Rating : 4 on 5

P.S: You will like this even if you liked VTV/YMC.