'Poi Solla Porom' is essentially the Tamil remake of the 2006 Bollywood small-budget sleeper hit Khosla ka Ghosla which featured Anupam Kher and also Boman Irani in the lead roles. I expected some typical mish-mashing of a good product when it is transformed into Tamil, but I ended up being surprised to the tilt and PSP offers plenty of joy, laughter and above all refreshments. There are many aspects in PSP worth noticing:
1. Its the first Tamil movie I've seen that credits the original which it was inspired from.
2. The film in the name of comedy doesn't provide crude, dumbed-down, slapstick jokes.
3. The film's director, Vijay, despite having given a big hit with a big star before this takes the unconventional route of making a film with low budget such as this.
4. The film doesn't cast any major stars despite being a remake.
5. It genuinely tickles your funny bones with some wonderful comedic sequences.
6. The film has a music video (which is not part of the film) used for promotional purposes.
PSP is basically the story about a middle class man Sathyanathan (Nedumudi Venu) whose only dream is to build a house on a newly acquired plot in Chennai and provide good home for his three children, including his USA-bound computer engineering son Uppilinathan (Karthick Kumar). He gets deceived by land broker Vijayakumar (Cochin Hanifa), who plots up with erronous villain and land magnet Baby (Nassar), who hold Sathyanathan's land to hostage for further extra payment. The family try all legal means to attain the rightful property but are unable to get it. That is when Uppili seeks help from his visa agent (Baski Bhaskar), who reveals that he is a former ally of Baby and knows how to knock Baby off his own porch. Uppili seeks help from his girlfriend Amrutha (Piaa Bajpai), who is part of a drama troup run by her 136 theatre awards winning father (Mouli), who is famously referred by everyone as 'Daddy'. Daddy poses as a NRI from Dubai and attempts to sell off a long-abandoned land reserved for the Fisheries Department as a genuine land to Baby in order to use Baby's own money to pay off the remains they need to get back theur plot, resulting in hillarious consequences.
One of the greatest strength of PSP is that the film simply doesn't use any stars, and there is a huge continental Malayali and small-screen flavor to the cast, which makes it absolutely refreshing to watch. Everybody performs with panache. Nedumudi Venu is adequate in taking over Anupam Kher's role from the original, but the real scene stealers are actors who haven't got that much of attention in the mainstream Tamil film industry. Mouli is brilliant in his role, and it makes you wonder why you do not see him in many other Tamil films, and same goes to TV host Baski Bhaskar, who plays his role with absolute panache, and its insulting to such a talent to recall that the last time I saw him on screen was in 'Youth' back in 2002. He really ought to be in more films as well. Cochin Haneefa and Nassar are simply priceless. Cochin Haneefa is his usual self, providing sarcasm and hands-on deception, playing the perfect humor-bound bad man, but Nassar is simply class and steals the show all the way, and its again dissapointing to notice that an actor of his quality are wasted in pedestrian roles the tons of regular Tamil flicks that come out every now and then. I doubted for a while that Nassar may have lost the ability to play a good role when it comes his way- but PSP proves the point. From simple gestures such as constantly trying to pull up his pants to fit his waistline up until lusting over a grass-cutting woman in his own style dissimilar to many other villans who are shown lusting after every young woman, its 'Brand Nassar' all the way. Karthick Kumar fits the role to the T as well. Piaa Bajpai as a newcomer certainly has some delightful charm that makes her get noticed, but she certainly has to work more on that lip-synching (terrible again, sigh), but she certainly can act.
Vijay handles the film with a distinct flavor, he justifies its original but also makes good alterations to fit the southern flavor, even though he could have done without the songs. Its wonderful to see UTV Motion Pictures debuting in Tamil, and they have stayed true to the production philosophy that has brought them so much success over the past couple of years in Bollywood, by producing low budget films that give more scope to creativity and substance, and giving talented directors the complete space to express their artistic visions (e.g. Dev D, Rang de Basanti, A Wednesday, and Aamir to name a few).
PSP is also a standing proof that Tamil cinema is not deprived because if the lack of talent, as the film stands as a glaring testament that the best of talents are never utilized enough. More of this brand of humor in Tamil please, and more from UTV for Tamil cinema please.
Rating: 8.5/10
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