Al Shola Productions' Tamil film Aru Maname (Patience, My Heart), directed by Sudheesh Shankar, and starring a host of newbies is yet another venture in the line of dumb-and-dumber movies. That wouldn't be a problem, really except that the movie is a mish-mash of several sentimental yesteryear films, with very little comic relief and, instead of putting you through an emotional roller-coaster, serves as an excellent remedy for insomnia.
Possibly the only thing slightly different about the family you're introduced to: Vaithi (debutant Deepak), an auto-rickshaw driver, his super-excellent, steady elder brother Murthi (a sensitive portrayal by Sriman), mother (Meera Krishna) and father Arunachalam (Rajesh) -- is that Arunachalam, a retired Maths teacher is obsessed with the household budget. Murthi, as the honest PWD Engineer, is his ideal son, while the more dashing Vaithi is a good-for-nothing idiot who hasn't crossed 10th standard.
This might have proved an intriguing plot device except that the requisite two villains, Ratnavelu and Rajadurai (Ponvannan and Co) make an appearance, and simultaneously, Anandhi (Nicole), a buxom beauty who tussles with Vaithi right at the beginning, as he argues with his mother over the auto-fare. As with other scenes, this relationship starts promisingly, before fizzling into nothing, peppered with Srikanth Deva's numerous songs.
Dinesh Pallathu's screenplay wanders all over the place: Vaithi is the ideal son and brother, man of the masses, destroyer of evil and the Chosen One who must bring balance to the world, even while being the most misunderstood man in the universe. Everyone disbelieves his integrity, doubts his love, entertains suspicions about his worth; it's a wonder someone didn't accuse him of murder and hang him.
The tragedy of the movie is that the cast, including Deepak himself, performs reasonably well, and would have done justice to a better script. As it is, they weave from one catastrophe to another, cry buckets of tears, spout endless dialogues, while several characters just disappear outright, suddenly change minds, and in the end, like a well-orchestrated 60's melodrama, all the villains have a change of heart and all is well in paradise.
Definitely worth a watch if you want more than two and half hours of uninterrupted sleep.
Rediff Rating: 
