March 23, 2015

Saravanan, a talented TV host, comes to the city with dreams of becoming a star anchor but has to make do with anchoring a sex show on the top TV channel. He is jealous of his colleague Kasinathan, who gets to host the channel's top programmes. Meanwhile, he is in trouble with a loan shark whose punishment for defaulters is branding their behind with a hot rod (We are not expected to ask sensible questions like why Saravanan doesn't take a person… read the rest.

Saravanan, a talented TV host, comes to the city with dreams of becoming a star anchor but has to make do with anchoring a sex show on the top TV channel. He is jealous of his colleague Kasinathan, who gets to host the channel's top programmes. Meanwhile, he is in trouble with a loan shark whose punishment for defaulters is branding their behind with a hot rod (We are not expected to ask sensible questions like why Saravanan doesn't take a personal loan and get rid of this loan shark).

Then, there is Deepika, his girlfriend, who, he thinks, is having an affair on the sly. During a night of binge drinking with his friends, he tells his problems to Mark, a hitman, who takes pity on him and offers to kill the three people who are the source of his unhappiness. But when Saravanan and his friends wake up (in a lock-up, no less), they have no recollection of the night! But the murders begin to happen and now, Saravanan must find Mark and stop him before he kills Deepika.

With storyline that seems like The Hangover-meets-Strangers On A Train (a character even remarks, 'English padathula vara maadhiri irukke'), we expect Ivanuku Thannila Gandam to be an entertaining dark comedy but the film often feels like a loud, intermittently funny TV show that has been turned into a movie. The cast is just about OK but the film banks heavily on Naan Kadavul Rajendran, whose style of comedy is already becoming tiresome. It is a film where amateurishness is passed for attitude, and silliness and crass dialogues (a heavyset woman is termed 'Dinosaur pota saani') for comedy.

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