Neethane En Ponvasantham movie review

Neethane En Ponvasantham , directed by Gautham Vasudev Menon is a story of Varun and Nithya, two childhood sweethearts and their journey of life together. As the director claims, it is a musical journey, and Ilayaraja's breezy songs keep reaching the shore within short intervals. The movie starts with Varun Krishnan( Jiiva) and Nithya Vasudevan ( Samantha) meeting each other at inter college culturals. The director takes us to the past , back in school when the couple Varun and Nithya broken up for some reason. The story then comes to the present and forays into the future of these two.

Jiiva as Varun Krishnan: Jiiva has once again proved that he is a great performer and essays the role of Varun with ease. He gives his best expressions and wears one kind of an attitude throughout the movie. He tries very hard to look like a school student though.


Samantha as Nithya Vasudevan: Samantha has done justice to her role by not just performing properly, but also by dubbing her own voice. Her expressions are appropriate and she fits into the role perfectly.


Santhanam as Prakash: Santhanam comes in as Varun's close friend in college and manages to make us laugh with his rib tickling one liners and expressions and also gets to spoof Gautham Menon's earlier venture 'Vinnaithandi Varuvaya'. He can also be called a 'relief' in few scenes where the narration is quite slow. And the best part- he has also got a pair in the movie!


Vidulekha Raman as Jenny: An awesome find! Vidyulekha is Santhanam's pair in the movie and she has done an outstanding job which would in fact gain her a lot of attention. She sets the audience to laughter along with Santhanam.


Gautham Menon: The story is a typical Gautham Menon type and it also has few trademark scenes and dialogues which will make you go "Gautham's movie,okay?". The story is engaging and relate-able, but the dialogues are too lengthy. Many scenes are shot at a stretch from the same angle which at times triggers boredom in us.


Ilayaraja: The actual hero of the whole film. Gautham has made the best use of the maestro and the songs are appropriately placed( though they come once in every few minutes or so) according to the situation. The background music is also apt to the situations and Ilayaraja has done justice to the songs whole-heartedly!


Now, I'll give you few points why and why shouldn't you go for the movie( Yeah. The positives and negatives)

You should go: Ilayaraja's music, Gautham Menon's movie, This could be your life story(which is also the tag line of the title), the lead characters acting and to while away 3 hours.

You shouldn't go: Slow and irksome, The 'I hate romance' characters, lengthy dialogues.




Overall, Gautham Menon takes us all for a beautiful romantic trip. Mr. Menon, but the ship is moving too slow!




Stars: 7.8/10

What's happening in India..

A para-medical student, who was travelling in a bus with her male friend was gang raped by a group of men when the bus was running and was thrown out of the vehicle. She is now admitted in the hospital with critical physical injuries. This is actually not new in a metropolitan city- several cases of physical and sexual assault have taken place before, brought to the notice of the public, taken to the court and have got their respective results. But one question burns in everyone's mind: Though such people know that they are going to be caught and punished under the law, they still commit such crime in public, and to everyone's notice. What gives them the dare to do such things? Don't they think about the consequences they are going to face? The social media has become so convenient to share videos relating to any crime/ such incident happening in any part of the world. In fact, the teenage girl who was stripped and assaulted was recorded and first published on youtube. It was only after an hour or so the police rushed to the spot and started investigating. And what was the public doing? They just witnessed the incident happening before their eyes. No-one festinated or rushed to the police, nor did they call and inform them. Few weeks back there was another allegation made by a North Eastern woman saying that she was verbally and physically abused by a gang of men (including a traffic police man) on a busy street in Bangalore. There have been major discussions about such issues in the media. There have been debates among people and service men regarding the safety of women in India. But, where is the finishing line? The race is going on and on and on.
                                            Being a girl, I have faced a lot of problems because of miscreants and the so-called 'Roadside Romeos'. A girl cannot stand in the bus stop without getting noticed. Men around us (of all ages) keep staring and notice each and everything we do. Constant commenting, signalling and sometimes getting closer happens.They chirp, whistle or even go the extent of singing to seek our attention. Inside the bus, they try to feel us( I am sorry if it sounds vulgar, but that's the ugly truth) and sometimes get so close. Few men even follow girls without their knowledge or peep into their identity cards looking for information(Beware!).In simple words, it can be called 'men menace'.
                                             I am not blaming the gender as a whole. Neither all the police men. For instance, one of my friends narrated an incident where a 40 year old man, a pervert, went around the bus stop touching women without their conscious. My friend and few others saw this and reported in a nearby police station. Two policemen immediately rushed to the bus stop and caught the pervert with the help of these girls. I actually appreciated my friend instead of talking about the greatness of the police. The police just did their job, but what these girls did was service. I am again making it clear- I am not blaming Shiela Dixit or Jagadish Shetter for not running a proper system, nor I am blaming the police men of our country. I entirely feel the situation of a particular city or a state depends on the public and their role in the society. Just awareness is not enough-we have to make sure that the entire public, minus status issues, should participate in activities against injustice. Only then the police will perform their job better, rather than repudiating the allegations made by us. A robust body should be brought in and the rules should become stringent that  offenders should get scared to commit crime. It's high time we all put our hands to welcome this change, instead of crying  over spilt milk. Let us succeed in our endeavour!