A 3D animation Tamil movie! I was filled with trepidation about what exactly I was going to witness on screen but Maya Bimbam Media's Inimey Nangathaan (It's Us, Hereafter) directed by S Venki Baboo, managed to allay some of my fears, if not all.

With a list of trivia longer than any on imdb.com, the 90-minute film manages to keep you in your seat -- songs, dance and pink clouds notwithstanding.

The story, as it goes, is uncomplicated: four village simpletons, Vichu, Varadhu, Vaidhi and Govindhu are kathakalakshebham artists (traditional storytellers) with their own ambitions about making it big -- except that they're not keen on working hard for it.

Life goes on in their little village, as they sing and let loose about the local jamindhar, get beaten out of their lives by his men, and languish in the mandapams of the village. It's here that they meet a mysterious old lady who provides them with a shortcut to fame and fortune: they must travel up a mountain that bears the likeness of a Swami, meet him, and lo and behold, their wishes will be answered.

And that's exactly what the four friends do as they wander up hill and down dale, enter gloomy caverns and fall off dizzyingly high cliff-tops through a mad adventure, even if it goes into slow-motion mode at times. 

Kudos must definitely go to the animation team, which, reportedly, had 25 computer engineers working 16-hour days through a whole year to finish the product. Their work clearly shows in the story, which abounds in undulating deserts, craggy mountains that evade logic and a vast underwater cavern with its vanishing steps -- clearly the best sequence in the movie. Not to mention the doors that require novel keys and a demon that fights with boxing gloves!

The characters themselves move like robots, diminishing the flow of the movie, even though their facial expressions, carefully crafted to mirror their personalities, try to mitigate this drawback. The operative word here is 'try'.

Not the most scintillating dance moves can take away the fact that the chief players move like plastic dolls without joints. Fortunately, with all their songs and dance, they do try their darndest to bring a note of realism into the story. And it's a relief that this isn't another mythological tale sprung from ancient epics, but veering towards the folk-tale world.

Pandu, Maaran, M S Bhaskar and Vasu Vikram have lent their voices to the principal characters -- and it can easily be said that Pandu, with his trademark grunts and noises walks away with honours. The audience hoots with laughter whenever he makes one of his characteristic remarks. The dialogue is pretty simple, naturally, with plenty of anecdotes thrown in about 'how-to-live-life', but peppered with enough contemporary connotations that make you bear all the bitter medicine with a grin.

Maestro Ilayaraja has turned out a good show -- the background scores fit in well with the storyline, while four songs add to the mix, rounding off the score to a proper Tamil movie. Of the songs, crafted by veteran Vaali, Vaazhu Vendumaa Va Va, with it vibrant, lively orchestration makes your feet tap a catchy rhythm.

If you can ignore the sometimes inadequate dialogue and trite screenplay, it's a squeaky clean, promising fare. For all its predictability, you can see enough creativity and colourful settings to watch out the movie right till the end.

Bring the kids -- they'll have a blast. And that is as it should be.

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