It could be your love story!

Ok, first off I gotta say when I saw the trailer for NEP, I was expecting a VTV-Part 2 (as if VTV-1 was not miserable enough!) and I still went to the movie because I wanted to experience this pleasure of whining about Gautam Menon's lack of ideas and repetitive way of storytelling. But I am happy to say that I was pleasantly surprised :)
Not only was the story good enough, but the characters were so consistently portrayed that one could relate with them easily. And I am not just talking about the lead roles.. even the character of Santhanam and that of Jeeva's or Samantha's parents and siblings are people we see in our everyday lives.. people who live next door! Needless to say the romance sequences were truly magical, thanks to Gautam's aka Love guru's romantic expertise!! :D If you have ever experienced love in your life, you would definitely be able to relate to atleast one scene in this movie!
The transition of Varun and Nithya from school to college and later, has been portrayed so beautifully. Gautam has to be appreciated for the way he makes us relive those moments in school and college.. when you talk to a guy/girl you have a crush on.. the silly jokes you could find funny only when you are in school.. the stupid relationship advice you would get from your friends, the so-called relationship experts! :P
All the actors had done justice to their roles.. I have always admired Jeeva's acting skills and he was great as always and in some scenes he manages to look irresistibly handsome and cute too. He and Samantha have a good chemistry on screen and are convincing as Varun and Nithya, a volatile couple so madly in love. Santhanam has been portrayed a little differently in this movie.. as in.. he's not doing the usual insulting-random-people (hint: his hilarious stint in Boss engira Baskaran) kinda comedy as he did in many of his movies...  In this movie, he's a little laid back yet level headed friend of Jeeva's, and has a lovestory of his own! And those VTV-spoof scenes with Jenny(I don't know her real name) and Santhanam were hilarious! Although Santhanam has a charm of his own, that Jenny girl really steals the show with her adorable expressions and attitude. She has gotten herself a new fan now! :)
Oh yeah, before I forget, Samantha has done a great job too.. She looks as pretty as ever and extra classy, considering its a Gautam Menon movie ;) She has done some good acting in all the romantic scenes and a few dramatic scenes too, albeit a little overdone in some places. Overall her performance was applaudable and I love her even more now for the simple fact that she speaks Perfect Tamil like a proper Chennai ponnu :D (Thanks to all the directors who go to the North to find some random bimbos who can't say a word in Tamil and can't dub or even lipsync for S**T!)
Having said all that, I have to say there were 2 major negative points in the movie.. One, it is a tad too slow for the i-have-no-time-for-anything urban audience.. And two.. the music... Don't get me wrong now. I love IR's music and have been visiting Youtube atleast ten times a day listening to most of the songs in this movie..  Saaindhu saaindhu and Mudhal murai would haunt you for weeks!! But there are just too many songs in the movie.. Like almost one every ten mins.. But hey, it was marketed as "an Ilayaraja musical".. so you were warned! :P And the BGM in most places is a little too jarring for my sensitive ears! The music was more dominant than the dialogues in many parts of the movie.. and I found that a bit annoying!
Other than these two factors, I found everything else about the movie was rather above average. I went into the theater with a frown and fury.. I came out smiling from ear to ear and hanging my head in shame! The tagline of this movie is sooo true.. This really could be one of our love stories! So pleeeeeaaaase go watch this movie in a theater, with an open mind and your gf/bf, when you are in absolutely no rush to get somewhere! You would love it like I did! :)
Lastly, Gautam Vasudev Menon, you are back in business! I bow down to your amazing storytelling methods! Keep up the awesomeness \m/

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Well, where do I begin? I'm absolutely speechless!! I never thought I'd say this... but I never really even imagined that Gautam would actually come up with such a script...AGAIN!!! When I saw the trailer of the movie, I heard a voice in my head that went "Not again!!"

Nevertheless, I went to watch the movie thinking something HAS TO be different in this one... How wrong was I!

Throughout the first half of the movie, one can see many romantic scenes strikingly similar to the ones in Minnale and Varanam Aayiram... And the main criteria for the protagonist to fall for the girl still seems to be style, class and beauty... whatever happened to good old girls with character and a mind of their own! Hmph!!

And the girl is a Christian and engaged to someone or getting engaged to someone or gonna get engaged to someone... whatever! Oh wait a minute... there's a difference here... the girl is a mallu Christian! :|

About the story... If you have seen Minnale and Varanam Aayiram and all other Gautam's movies just like I did, by now you would've guessed it.. and yes your guess is right! It is yet another story about a boy who falls in love with a classy woman the minute he sees her, but the girl doesn't feel the same way at the same instant (thankfully), so he chases her everywhere and travels all the way to Kerala in pursuit of his true love! After which, she finally falls for him and what happens next? Do they really unite? Do they get married or not?? This is the one line story of VTV! Talk about creativity! :-/

And as though all this wasn't enough, we have the Great Simbu playing his role beautifully in tormenting the audience with his awkward use of English to convey his love to Trisha... I just couldn't see Simbu as the seriously committed guy for once... It sounds so artificial hearing him say things like "I'm in love with you... I'm crazy about you!" Honestly, call me biased or whatever... but Simbu does NOT and cannot show the same "truth" in his eyes like Surya or Madhavan! When he declares his undying love for his girl, I couldn't help but think "There he goes again! I hope Jessie doesn't fall for him!"... Simbu looks more desperate than in love!!

But that is not the only reason I didn't like the movie... Only through the first half, I was wondering why Gautam had to cast Simbu in this role... But frankly, Simbu kinda grows on you... I mean during the second half of the movie, you would come to terms with Simbu being in the lead role, but that's when the story starts falling apart! At one point, I actually started counting the minutes to the end of the movie!! I just couldn't wait to take off the shackles and run out of the theater! :(

But while all this was testing my patience, the only consolation was Trisha... although Trisha's character Jessie is a really annoying girl who isn't level headed enough to make a big decision in life and stick to it.. It gets seriously annoying when she says she likes him.. she always did.. and then she wants him... no she doesn't want him... then she wants to elope with him... but no wait she doesn't! Uff... make up ur bloody mind, woman!! :-/

However, she has done her part in the movie perfectly well (making you hate her)! And I gotta admit this... she does look very cute and stylish AND sexy in many scenes!! :D

One other consolation is The God, AR Rahman! :) His music is very soothing especially when you're being tortured by all other elements of the movie!! If at all, anybody happens to like the movie by some miracle, one of the main reasons would be ARR's BGM... In many scenes during the first half of the movie (when i was still expecting something good to happen), the BGM has played a huge role in making those few special moments what they are...

In spite of the great music by AR Rahman, most of the songs fail to register in your mind except Oh Sana... because of the sheer lack of creative picturisation of the songs! Every song has Trisha doing her catwalk, turning to smile at Simbu... and Simbu in the background dancing with a bunch of hip hop dancers... which again, (I'm tired of saying this) we have already seen in Varanam Aayiram..

I am a HUGE fan of Gautam Menon... and I was proud to say so... I really loved and worshipped him more with each new movie he made... But its time he stopped making movies with the same storyline! I really really expected much more out of Gautam Menon than these repeated movies about his lost love!! Seriously, Gautam... Its high time you started writing or listening to different kinds of love stories than just your own "first love"!! Move ON!!!

Lastly, there's a dialogue in the movie repeatedly said by Simbu which goes like this... "Ethanayo ponnunga irundhum naan yein Jessie ah love pannen!?!"... Roughly translated, "Of all the girls in the world, why did I have to fall in love with Jessie?!"

I keep asking myself a somewhat similar question now... Of all the movies available, why did I have to go watch this one??? :(