All In All Azhagu Raja

Synopsis: Azhagu Raja (Karthi), a local cable TV owner, who falls in love with Devi Priya (Kajal), a wannabe artiste. But his normally supportive father (Prabhu) is against the match as her family had treated him badly during his youth.

Review: Here’s the latest addition to the list of this year’s overhyped duds. And, it is even more painful when you consider the talent and the money that has gone into producing this mess of a movie. It wants to be a part comedy and part melodrama but only ends up as an excruciating bore. Like the recent Naiyaandi, the entire first half is wasted with tired and unfunny scenes whose sole reason for existence seems to be to provide content for the comedy channels on TV.

The plot, if you call it that, is about Azhagu Raja, a local cable TV owner, who falls in love with Devi Priya, a wannabe artiste. But his normally supportive father is against the match as her family had treated him badly during his youth. This could have been made into a fairly engaging drama but there is a silliness to the whole enterprise that you never take anything seriously. To get a hang of the tone of the film, you only have to watch the scene where Azhagu Raja and his future father-in-law Kandhasamy indulge in a silly tug of war to get Devi Priya to their side. The level of absurdity in which the scene plays out has to be seen to be really believed.

Moreover, even by Tamil cinema standards, the characterisation of the heroine is insulting. She wants to make a mark in the field of arts but lacks any real talent, but the hero makes a mockery of her every one of her attempts, and condescendingly remarks that she should instead try to be a great housewife and make babies with him. The only thing that tops this crassness is a track involving Santhanam as a model in drag (named Kareena Chopra) and the elderly Chokkanathan (Kota Srinivsa Rao) who lusts after her. The epilogue, in which they dance to Sakalakala Vallavan’s Nila Kayudhu only adds to our misery.