Father of the Groom!

Karan Johar and Aditya Chopra can smile (so can Kunal Kohli, Siddharth Anand and anyone and everyone involved in churning out the so called "feel good" family entertainers out of the YRF stable) because they have company down south and that is M Raja- the young director who has worked hard to bring back this genre into the mainstream and has been fairly successful with that (M Kumaran s/o Mahalakshmy, Something Something Unakkum Enakkum)

Now he teams up with his young brother "Jeyam" (Remake) Ravi to come up with "Santhosh s/o Subramaniam"- another flick on the father, mother, son relationship. It is to Raja's credit that he is not getting tired with this genre though this is his third outing in a row and does manage to bring in some freshness to each and every one of his attempts. If Nadia was the attraction of M Kumaran, it was Trisha in Something and here it is Genelia D'souza who makes a comeback to Kollywood after Boys, Sachin and Chennai Kaadhal. I could hear the audience going ga- ga over Genelia and I was left wondering if repeating the 5 expressions (happy- go- lucky, pleasant surprise, tinge of romance, naughtiness bordering on craziness and sad for no reason) with a certain regularity throughout the length and breadth of a movie calls for so much of adulation. Whatever it is, one request to whoever is going to cast Genelia in future is that plese dont can her close up shots when she has to lip sync for Tamil. It is atrocious and obscene and if you dont agree with me please watch how Genelia lip syncs for the scene where she declares she doesnt want to spend her life with Ravi!

After showing the loving mother and the loving father in his previous flicks, this time Raja focusses on the father's love- bordering on insanity. Here the father is a successful businessman (Prakash Raj for whom playing an eccentric has become a cake walk) who decides what each and every member in the family would do- not for a livelihood but even on a daily basis. The son (Jeyam Ravi) hates his father for this and abuses his father after gulping down a couple of beer bottles with his friends. Sonny wants to decide his career and find his soul mate but dad plays villain. Dad zeroes in on a rich heiress and puts Sonny into his office. Bechara sonny is confused and turns into a recluse only to be mesmerized by the charm of a middle class college girl Haasini (Genelia).

Papa finds and frowns, Sonny begs and cries, Mama and Sisters coax and cajole (and in the middle of all this we have a wooden elder bro who looks like an out of work cricketer- read Sadagopan Ramesh) and finally the girl is brought into the house to live for 7 days. Girl breaks every rule in Papa's book and endears herself to all except Papa and on the d- day declares that she feels claustrophobic in the house since she cannot run around at her will doing her stuff.

Papa is happy, sonny is broken, Momma is angry, Sisters are teary and big bro wears the same expression as the huge sofa set in the sitting room of the Subramaniams. From here on, the movie almost completely loses focus with each and every character getting into a lecture of the who, when, where, why and how of things. Papa relents at the end of it all (thank God!) and the entire family dressed in designer wear shows up at the girl's house but here is trouble- you have an equally nauseating father (Sayaji Shinde, grossly miscast in a badly written role) who now wants the rich sonny to get into his middle class routine and thus the torture continues for Santhosh. Poor audience is spared otherwise Raja and Ravi would not have been.

The concept is universal and something that is identifiable in the present day nuclear family scenario but too much of cinematic liberty, melodrama and cheeky dialogues mar the show. Genelia is a no- show, Jeyam Ravi has an endearing screen presence but does not get stretched enough as an actor, Prakash Raj is disappointingly repetitive, Geetha gets to show her mettle in a couple of scenes, Koushalya has to look like a mannequin out of a garment store and the rest of the cast do not deserve a mention.

The songs are hummable (credit: Devisree Prasad) and have been choreographed and shot well. Editor should have been on vacation since the movie needs some trimming especially towards the last reels. All the characters have been clothed well but the Art Direction is tacky and over the top. The director manages to hold the movie together with great difficulty but Raja must definitely be complemented for staying away from the mandatory item number. The ladies are elegantly dressed and Genelia's looks and costumes are neat and beautiful.

Santhosh Subramaniam is a good time pass movie if you stay away from analyzing it the way I did :-)

PS: Find out what Jams has to say about this one