Three murders, one flashback, enough fisticuffs to give audiences sore knuckles, wholesale mayhem, two skimpily clad women gyrating to ear-splitting noise trying to pass for music, and a climax that is a cross between Terminator II and Titanic [Images] inside what seems like a factory full of pipes and short circuits... that bizarre summary pretty much does justice to Rendu starring Madhavan [Images], Vadivelu, Reema Sen [Images], Anushka, Manivannan and Bhagyaraj.

Produced by Khushboo and directed by her husband Sundar C, Rendu is all about a blind man out on a get-even binge played by Madhavan, who leaves enough props for a bumbling detective (Bhagyaraj) to trace the wrong man, also played by Madhavan.

The first half is all slapstick comedy being generated by Vadivelu (who triggers wolf whistles in the cinema hall in appreciation) as a magician who has forgotten his spells but has enough spunk in him to two-time an three-wheeler owner repeatedly to pay his debts.

The front-benchers are kept happy thanks to Sen who lipsyncs (and sometimes, forgets to) badly written lyrics tuned into Imman's cacophony. She plays a trickster with a heart of gold, who manages to take the gullible, ogling public for a ride by playing -- no, I'm not kidding -- a mermaid!

As if all this confusion wasn't enough, a murderer (incidentally a soft touch for damsels in distress) keeps announcing his next victim with a calling card.

Manivannan as a loan shark with a soft head, and a bespectacled Bhagyaraj with an ill-fitting wig ,manage to somehow figure in the whole set up while doing precious little.

Many movie buffs in the audience simply walked out of the cinema hall even before the climax, second guessing the end.

The 'super villain' (Hari Raj) who is supposed to have gypped a temple and its tenants of property worth about R .500 crores is naive enough to walk into the blind man's trap.

There is enough cleavage in the movie to wonder whether the censor officials did a deal on the sly. But that also happens to be the saving side of the movie for all the crowds coming to movie houses to see just that.

Since most of the stars in the movie seemed to be adlibbing, one wonders what exactly was directed by Sundar C.

Rediff Rating: