Never judge a book by its cover, or a movie by its title. And that holds good for the maiden Tamil venture of Raj TV, which has come out with Kadhalna Summa Illa (Love Isn't Easy), directed by Ilankannan. Once you know that it's a remake of the Telugu hit Gamyam, you settle down for a reasonably good time.
The script doesn't disappoint at first: Abhiram (Sarvanand) is caught in a horrible accident; his listlessness bothers his father JK (Nasser), who pleads with him to just "go ahead with life." But it's not that easy, as Abhiram is tormented by images of his lost love Janaki (Kamalini Mukherjee), a social activist and doctor who hates his upper class arrogance and complete indifference to the world around him. In the end, unable to envision a life without her, he sets off on his bike (a very liberal nod to The Motorcycle Diaries, here) to win her back.
Not that that's going to be easy, naturally, as he ends up missing her at the last possible minute at each place, and befriends a petty thief, Vetti Velu (Ravi Krishna) a happy-go-lucky young man who steals bikes for a living. And its here that the movie gains more life; Velu's outlook and wise-cracks, not to mention his philosophies open a whole new world for Abhiram -- and pretty soon, the whole point of his journey changes.
Sarvanand and Kamalini essentially repeat their performances in the Tamil version; sometimes they appear plastic, sometimes sincere. But the parts that let you down are those that have been dubbed from the Telugu version. The close-up shots, especially, are quite jarring and could have been better, since the makers went to the trouble of re-shooting the parts with Ravi Krishna.
Ravi Krishna is the lifeblood of the movie, providing well-needed laughs and giving a zing to the proceedings. Obviously, he's had a blast. And he inspires quite a bit of emotion as well. The movie undoubtedly belongs to him.
M S Bhaskar and Kanja Karuppu appear very briefly to provide some comic relief, as does Ilavarasu, while the music, contributed by Vidyasagar, Mani Sharma and E S Murthy fits the bill, barely. A couple of them are hummable, chiefly because Raj TV has been broadcasting them at the slightest opportunity: Ennamo Seythai Nee and Jai Sambo. The editing is rather slip-shod in the first half and doesn't gel well.
It's the script that carries you along with it, though barring a few plot holes, cliched dialogues and a couple of redundant situations obviously carried over from the Telugu version. A bit of slick tightening of the script would have worked wonders.
If you're looking for a rather nice feel-good movie that isn't very pretentious and has a judicious mixture of comedy and pathos, this one is your pick.
Rediff Rating: 
