Semma Botha Aagatha - Some laughs but this thriller comedy never gets high enough!!!

Bharath Vijayakumar

The hero finds someone he just met as a corpse and he needs to find the killer to save himself. The plot sounds like a thriller and the film does try to be one in the sense that the reveal is only in the last segment. But at heart it wants to be a comedy on the lines of 'Panchathanthiram' with attempts to dispose the dead body. The idea to mix the two is not a problem. In fact it could be a potent combination with laughs amidst the thrill. But Semma Botha Aagatha never scores high on both counts. It is the comedy which appeals more and saves the day at least to an extent.

Karunakaran is primarily responsible for the laughs in the film. He keeps it simple and delivers the goods in his own subtle manner. The scenes involving him and the corpse inside a locked house are the high points of the film which keeps losing steam in the track involving the hero on the run to find the culprit. There is no tension in the latter. I get it that the film tries to be light-hearted but even the attempted jokes in this track do not work and we keep waiting to get back to Karunakaran. Atleast there is a basic plot here and some attempts just do not work and that is understandable but what is not is the romance track that is downright silly, laughable and gets irritating. The lip sync of the heroine is the icing on the cake here. It is baffling how such a basic aspect keeps getting ignored in mainstream Tamil cinema. Apart from the initial scenes where he plays a reluctant youngster about to give into temptation, Atharva doesn't have much to do. M.S. Bhaskar and Devadharshini impress in their brief roles.

The film suffers from convenient writing which relies on coincidences to unravel the mystery. But this would have not mattered much had the comedy been consistently good throughout. The long fights serve no purpose and the film seems to go on and on towards the end despite the runtime being just 133 minutes. Yuvan's BGM does seem to create a sense that something is happening on screen. But after a while you realize that it is loud or is he actually be trying to compensate for the lack of thrill on screen?

Bottomline:

Some scattered and good laughs but Semma Botha Aagatha keeps falling flat during the wait for these laughs.

Rating:2/5