Movie: Devi / Devi(L)
Direction: AL Vijay
Cast: Prabhu Deva, Tamannaah, Sonu Sood, RJ Balaji
Music: Gopi Sundar
Cinematographer: Manush Nandan
Editor: Anthony
Genre: Comedy, Horror
Rating: ∗∗∗
What is it about: This is a horror comedy, in which a newly married couple Tamizh (Prabhudeva) & Devi/Ruby (Tamannaah) move in to a new house, where an aspiring actress had committed suicide, and her ghosts starts to trouble them. What happens next forms the crux of the story directed by AL Vijay.
Why it’s disappointing: This film had so much potential to explore the core subject and could have flourished a great franchise in fact. But it seemed quite rushed in the second and quite nothing in the first half. This makes “Devi” work in parts, not as an entire film.
The first half is very plain, where director tries to establish the characters and goes nowhere until the interval block. The worse part was, a 6 year old sitting next to me in the cinema hall was irritated with the clichéd interval block. Well that shows how the audience have grew up to analyse a film and still our directors are stuck up.
And more over the role of Rajiv played by Sonu Sood should have been replaced by a native actor for the Tamil version, which definitely would have added a great face value to the film. Just because of the nativity that character kind of loses out in this version.
What to watch out for: But whatever was lost in the first half, director AL Vijay tries to make it up in the second half. But with limited time left, he tends to rush. But still in the second half, you keep laughing most of the time and the film changes the perspective of the audience from the first half.
Prabhudeva did a really good job in portraying the role of Tamizh which had good layers of comedy and he unravelled it with fun. And that was enjoyed thoroughly by the audience. He did a commendable job and seeing him dance was icing on the cake.
Tamannaah, she deserves a sweet pat on her back. She did a great job in essaying both the shades which was derived and performed well. She brings a sweet innocence as “Devi” and a crisp attitude as “Ruby”. She looks like million bucks when transforms in to Ruby.
RJ Balaji did bring in great laughs with his usual antics, and added to Prabhudeva’s timing.
The music by Sajid-Wajid was good and was in pretty good sync with the film, which was perfectly backed with Gopi Sundar’s background score. The cinematography by Manush Nandan was good and was precisely edited by Anthony. The VFX in the film was neat and looked good for once in a Tamil film.
Verdict: AL Vijay gave a neat entertainer, which loses out in the first half but manages to gain attention in the second. The film was infused with good comedy which was quite genuine giving the audience a good laugh. And it was perfectly supported by its lead cast Prabhudeva and Tamannaah. Definitely worth a watch, as it comes out a decent entertainer among the other two releases this Pooja holidays.
