Dhiluku Dhuddu Reviw - Passable with some good fun

Bharath Vijayakumar

Let's talk cricket for a moment. There are bowlers who keep contributing to their team's success. The crowd cheers for their exploits on ground. However at the end of the day there is quite a possibility that few of them feel that they do not get their due credit. You ask a random person who is your favourite cricketer and it might not be an exaggeration if nine out of ten times the choice is a batsman. Not an apple to apple comparison by any means but apply this to Tamil cinema. Who is your favourite actor? You can guess all possible names and it is quite realistic that all the names that you recollected were 'heroes'. So what about the comedians who much like our bowlers contribute no less to mainstream commercial Tamil cinema? Could these questions be the reason why Santhanam now wants to be a 'hero'? Maybe or maybe not. Let us save this for another day and get into the movie now.

Plot:

Rich girl - poor boy romance, an unwilling father and a haunted house.

Santhanam:

It is very apparent that Santhanam has taken this new role quite seriously. He does look convincing. The 'look' here refers to the way he looks. That does not mean he falters in his performance. He is very good at what he does best and that is his brand of humour. It is only when he becomes hell bent on proving a point through his dance and stunts that it becomes difficult to explain. He does these with earnestness and it is not floppy either. The best way to sum it up would be that I would any day take his 'exercise routine' in the song Venam Machan Venam from OKOK to any of the acrobatics that he does in this film. 

A majority of the first half remains passable at best. This is quite an achievement with most scenes involving a heroine who seems clueless to say the least. Few of Santhanam's counters is what keeps things afloat. They are certainly not his best but his short sabbatical actually has helped these jokes to work to an extent. There is a stretch in the second half for a substantial period that is the high-point of this film. These scenes involving the entire cast are well choreographed and the laughs keep coming. This stretch also proves what the director is capable of when he gets his priorities right. This film could have been so much more fun without the commercial cinema checklist that the makers have so judiciously followed.

Last week we had Appa which had good things to say about a boy with a stunted growth.  In a scene in Dhiluku Dhuddu, Santhanam mocks at someone similar comparing him to a vavval (bat). Could hear a few laughs in the auditorium to this reference. Art impacting society has been the hot topic in social media for the past few days. I was wondering what would be the take away for someone who watched both these films.

Bottomline:

After an indifferent start, Dhiluku Dhuddu gets into top gear for a while and ends up as a passable outing on the whole.

Rating: 2.5/5