A hard hitting film is not one that relies solely on the ultimate punch to shake us up. In the sense, the punch will only work if we buy in all that lead to it and if we care for the characters. Mahabalipuram depends too heavily on the climax and most of us have almost resigned before it arrives.

Plot:

A group of friends get under wrong influence that causes havoc.

Performance:

The film has got uniformly poor performance from all the actors that you wonder whether it is really they who are to be blamed. And when actors like Karuna who is one of the finds of the recent past make no impression, it leaves you bewildered. All of them seem disinterested and a daily soap on TV will easily have better performances. In one particular scene the hero actually reacts and asks a question even before the other actor has completed her sentence!!! Some amends are made in the climax when the actors are believable to an extent.

Technicalities:

A couple of melodies by 'K' definitely stand out. This is a film where a song actually provides some solace from the dreariness. Editing looks haphazard. You have an introduction scene for the villain out of nowhere. And before anything registers the action shifts to another place. Even then we are not sure if the editor could have done anything better as the film with a run-time of just 111 minutes tests our patience to the hilt. And when are the events actually taking place? All of a sudden in a party song we see the sign 'Happy New Year 2008'. Or probably there is every chance that we missed something that denoted this earlier, purely out of disinterest. Not that it makes any difference.

The film wants to bring to light a very pertinent and timely issue. The misuse of technology to please the voyeuristic instincts and the precaution that is the need of the hour is what the film wants to emphasize or this is what we assume.

But this is driven home during the end credits and in one important scene before the intermission. The remaining run-time just meanders with no clear focus. The earlier portions with the friends fooling around provide absolutely no humour. The film could easily have the most of number of unfunny jokes and one liners in the recent past. And unfunny is a generous word used here. The lip sync and dubbing dilute even the bare minimum impact that the film might have offered otherwise.

The situations and scenes are played around with no real conviction. One of the friends is supposed to travel to Canada the following week. A huge tragedy then occurs to another friend which forms the crux of the film. We are shown in montage shots the mental agony of the group. And then suddenly everyone reacts as if nothing happened and this guy starts to Canada. And this entire stretch is supposed to have happened within a week. When the characters themselves seem to forget what happened in the previous scene do we really even have to try to care? The last 40 minutes however shows a remarkable improvement and some urgency is instilled in the proceedings. Had the livelier earlier portions of the film struck a chord the impact of the climax would have been all the more and this would have definitely been an important film.

Bottomline:

A very relevant issue is addressed in the end credits. The message is delivered but where is the film?

Rating: 1.75/5