Parris Jeyaraj Review - Might not be rib-tickling but is a competent comedy that gathers steam as it progresses!

Bharath Vijayakumar

I had enjoyed A1 (the previous collaboration of Santhanam and Johnson) which was a film that delivered on what it had set out to do without much fuss. Parris Jeyaraj does fall a bit short in comparison but isn't a washout either. I probably enjoyed A1 more as I watched it in a packed auditorium with an audience that was having a gala time (pre-covid times).

Parris Jeyaraj (Santhanam) is a gana singer (a mini YouTube celebrity is how he is referred to as) whose love life faces a villain in the form of his father. It is not the usual obstacles but what happens is an accident on account of his father's profession. Post break-up, the hero recoups and finds another girl but his father comes in the way again. This time too it isn't intentional but the reason now is complicated and is the major plot point around which the film is mounted upon.

The film is off to a rather uninteresting start and the comedy in these early portions don't really work. Most of it is what you would term a 'mokka' counter. Sample this. When a character says '1000(in Tamil) thaan irundhaalum appa aache' Santhanam's counter is 'appo 500 irundha chithappa ah'. You don't mind these occasionally but most of the initial half hour is basically this type of humour. It is Santosh Narayanan's songs that keep you interested at this point. But the film gradually gets into its groove once the main plot point is revealed. This is a solid premise that can be a breeding ground for comedy. The jokes now start to work and the frequency too increases. The actors do their part. They sort of remain subtle and this works. They might not be contributing a great deal to the humour with their antics but by not going over the top, the risk of putting you off completely is out of the equation.

The standard of most of our comedy films has made it almost futile to look for political correctness but Parris Jeyaraj actually has a few pleasant surprises. Most pleasant is the other (good)guy ( the foreign maapilai or the nerdy but good for nothing stereotype in our films who usually gets an unceremonious exit) getting to be the winner here. Even A1 was about a casteist father who wouldn't let his daughter marry outside caste but had no qualms about himself having extramarital affairs outside his caste. It might be too early to make a call but Johnson's two films show some promise about having a moral compass behind the camera.

Bottomline:

Parris Jeyaraj packs in sufficient laughs, particularly towards the end. It might not be laugh riot right through but given the state of comedy films of late, this one is certainly one of the better ones in recent memory.

2.75/5