Solla Solla Inikkum is mildly interesting

Romantic movies are always the staple diet of mainstream Tamil films, and M Cinema's Solla Solla Inikkum, directed by Murali Abbas is no exception. Its a tale you've heard a thousand times, about young love, its trials and tribulations, but there are still some twists and turns that make the ride mildly interesting.

The proceedings start out ordinarily enough, though. There's the standard-issue youngster Sathya (Navdeep) who's full of life, is berated by his father (Vijayakumar), loved by his simple mother (Meera Krishna) and in general, the joy and delight of his friends Guru (Abninay), Sathyan and others who don't even share the screen with him half the time. The difference is that instead of a college guy, Sathya is a young man in search of a job but he's as love-sick as anyone his age is usually portrayed in the movies.

In true filmy fashion, he meets a succession of girls who snag his attention and with whom he inevitably falls in love: Anjali, Megha and Radhika (Suja, Sura Allambra and Madhumitha) but their roles in his destiny turns out to be a bit different from what he's envisioned. Added to the mix is his undoubted ill-luck in actually falling in love. Then there's the vacuously pretty Anuradha (Mallika Kapoor) as well, almost waiting, it seems to fall into his arms. Or perhaps not.

In the mix is Bhadri Narayanan (Prakash Raj, who's been through this so many times you feel sorry for the National Award winner), the local goonda who'll do anything his "clients" ask, provided they garland him first. And Inspector Madhiyazhagan (Ashish Vidhyarthi, donning his usual role and looking as bored as we feel) occupies the opposite end of the spectrum, threatening to throw him behind bars, but which is a threat the screenplay doesn't let him carry out. Add Sathya to the soup and you have a regular (diluted) masala cocktail, as usual.

After a rather half-baked A Aa E Ee, Navdeep actually plays a loveable youngster who's got everything going for him, including pretty-boy looks but rarely lands love. His performance is as cheesy as it comes, but that's the script's fault, hardly the actor's, and you hope he'll get more chances to prove himself. Barring Madhumitha and Abhinay himself, in a surprising twist of tale, no one else has really given knock-out performances: the script never lets them.

Was it really Bharadwaj who composed the music for this movie? It seems unlike him; you hear only echoes of his old work. While Arthur Wilson's camera and V T Vijayan's editing remain professional, there's not really much space for technical expertise.

Solla Solla Inikkum has good principles and starts out meaning well and were it not for the dull and cliched presentation, might have actually stood a chance of clicking with its audience.

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