Monster Review - An enjoyable comedy that gets its priorities right!

Bharath Vijayakumar

Nelson's debut Oru Naal Koothu was a film that had a lot to say without being preachy. With Monster he reaffirms that he is an able filmmaker who knows exactly what he is upto. Monster can easily fit into the category of films for kids and this is such a rarity in Tamil cinema where they try to add ingredients for adults even in a film targeted at the kids. But Nelson seems to be in no such confusion as he delivers a neat comedy that should be lapped up by the kids and quite an enjoyable outing for the adults as well.

Much like films of this genre, Monster has a very basic one liner and how well you narrate this on screen with adequately entertaining/interesting performances is what matters. Nelson delivers the goods aided by S.J.Suryah and a neat supporting cast. S.J. Suryah is a keen actor and it shows. He has mellowed down a bit. While he could have easily gone over the top here, he stays in sync with his characterisation. Credit to Nelson for a neat track between S.J.Suryah and Priya Bhavani Shankar. It is simple, enjoyable and remains an integral part of the main plot. Karunakaran rocks it in a few scenes.

The CG portions involving the rat are quite good. Nelson has cleverly not gone overboard with the use of CG. The comedy is almost always clean and even the couple of references to body parts are naughty and never vulgar. While there aren't many unnecessary scenes, a little urgency might have helped the film for multiple viewings. The comedy is of the laugh out loud type at a couple of instances and leaves you with a smile for the most part. You wish there were a few more crazy scenes . But when you begin rooting for the rat you realize that this is a job well done by Nelson.

Bottomline

Monster is simple comedy that is neatly executed and positions Nelson as an interesting filmmaker who is likely to explore different genres.

Rating: 3/5