Movie Review : Romeo
Arivu ( Vijay Antony) is a famous chef in Malaysia. Being 35 and still single, his parents in India want him to get married. But he insists that he wants to fall in love and get married. He wants to feel the love he has missed while spending time building his life and career.
Leela ( Mirnalini Ravi) is an aspiring heroine. Her dad ( Thalaivasal Vijay) is a domineering man and totally against her career. One day, Arivu spots Leela at a funeral and falls in love at first sight. His family sends the proposal to her dad and Leela is married off to him, much against her wishes within a week.
Arivu brings his bride to a dream home but she throws him out of his room on the first night itself. Moreover her 3 besties arrive in the scene and decide to stay in the same house. To his utter surprise, Arivu discovers that his bride is very different in real life.
In actuality, her friends have hatched a plot with her, to marry Arivu, since she had no other choice, and then achieve her dreams of becoming a heroine after marriage.
On seeing her passion to achieve her dreams, Arivu, who is in love with her, decides to turn producer and hero of a film so that Leela can fulfil her dreams. Even though his love is one-sided, he feels that making a loved one happy is the ultimate goal of love .
At the same time, at the advice of a love guru of sorts, Vikram ( Yogi Babu), Arivu turns into an incognito fan cum phone friend to Leela and soon becomes a person she depends on for encouragement. He feels that this way at least he can get close to her since she does not like him as Arivu.
But does Leela ever return his love? Does she ever find out who Vikram is in reality? Does she achieve her dreams?
The film is mounted on a grand scale with superb visuals. The music and bgm too is suitable to the scale and vision of the film. The songs have been kept to the minimum but are superbly conceived and shot making for grand and pleasant visuals. We see a different playful side of Vijay Antony in the peppy vethala song.
The story moves at several levels with layers peeling off one by one, and Vijay Antony stands tall in the midst of it all, carrying the film on his shoulders with seeming ease. As the husband, lover and hero in the film within a film, he displays the perfect timing, tone and tenor of a measured and engaging performance, different from his earlier films. Even in the emotional scenes he does well as he does the lighter ones. The chellakili song in particular stands out. It's good to see Vijay Antony in the light hearted comedy portions and hope to see more of him in such an avatar in future as well.
Mirnalini too lives her part and conveys the confusion and despair of a girl struggling between her life and her dreams. The scenes between the lead pair are carried off superbly by both. The climax portions in particular stand out in particular, both for the twist in the tale and the performances of the lead pair.
VTV Ganesh, Sha Ra and others in the supporting cast do a good job. Yogi Babu in a different avatar adds value by his presence.
There is an element of surprise in the film which makes for an interesting crux and climax.
However, the length could have been trimmed a bit and the story does move a tad slowly at times.
On the whole, Romeo lives up to its title. With a different kind of story, engaging screenplay, excellent performances, a sound mix of humor and emotions, grand visuals, a well- mounted, rich production and settings, and ample twists to keep you engaged, Romeo makes for a clean family entertainer for the holidays.
Rating 3.5/5
2. Mirnalini ravi - Leela
3. Yogibabu - Vikram
4. VTV ganesh - Murugan
5. Thalaivasal Vijay - Murthy
6. Ilavarasu - Pazhaniyapan
7. Sudha - Vijaya
8. Sreeja ravi - Saratha
9. Sha ra - Arun
10. Roju - Gowtham
11. Shalini Vijyayakumar - Sanam
12. Adavaith - Small arivu
13. Jaya Samridha - Small janani
14. Murali - fight master
2. Farook .J Basha- DOP
3. Barath dhanasekar - Music director
4. Editor - Vijay Antony
5. Costume designer- Shimona Stalin
6. Art Director- S.Kamala Nathan
