VADAKKUPATTI RAMASAMY – MY 2 PAISA REVIEW

I booked my tickets for this movie after looking at the Bookmyshow ratings for it after one full week of its release. I am somebody who watches most of the movies as soon as they release on screen, the reason it took me one week to even pull myself to this movie was not personal, but the reviews I read online about the movie. ‘Dismal’, ‘Lacks story’, ‘Draggy’ are a few highlights that come to the top of my mind from those review pieces. Boy, I would have missed a hilarious 3 hours had I not shut down the logical part of my brain that told me to believe those reviews blindly.

The story revolves around Ramasamy (Santhanam), maintaining a small temple in his village that he usurped being a boy, taking advantage of the villagers’ superstitious nature. When I say maintenance, I mean doing con on villagers, trying to get his pockets filled by implementing and making absurd worship ways a practice among the believers. A new government official gets appointed as Tehsildar, and that is where things start to unfold in the story. As Santhanam refuses to get his arm twisted into an under-the-table deal involving the temple wealth, the official starts to give a hard time to Ramasamy, by having the temple closed as his revenge. How Ramasamy tries to re-open and keep the temple open against the Tehsildar and the ridiculousness that unfurls from there, forms the remainder of the story.

The story, albeit being shallow, gets deep enough to have masala for 2 and a half hours, because of the way it is written. Characters written with the ultimate goal of silliness, almost add the required magic to the script that make it a superhit material. Goofy dialogs, silly (I know that I am repeating myself, but it is what it is) set up acts, that, even though feel forced upon in places, accomplishes their goal, makes us laugh. The music does not blare too much, and does not add any extra to it either. It just... is there, complementing the flow of the movie, although the songs in the movie are comfortable forgettable. Sean Roldan seems to be missing the target recently, more so than ever. His last few outings as music director have not yielded any ear worms, or even play-them-once-a-week tracks.

What do make the movie stand away from mediocrity are its performances. Seasoned artists coming together to put up a hilarious performance seems to be its X factor. Nizhalgal Ravi, MS Bhaskar, along with a hilariously intended and made cameo with Motta Rajendran are the pillars to this movie becoming what it is. Of course, writing is there, but writing sans any body good to do justice to it with their performance can only get you so far. 

There are also complaints. The film could have trimmed a few parts. Those parts do their best to bring the momentum of the movie down, makes the audience go shut mouth when they go on about their laughing spree. One element that formed the majority of this phenomenon is, Lollu Sabha Maaran. His lines seldom make us laugh (so sorry to put it this way), often times feel uninvited to the scenes. Megha Akash does her part, still there is a lot that can be expected from her, given the scope the movie. The last piece about the temple and the superstition taking its place in a seemingly spiritual satire does feel off the place, and there are no second thoughts about it. 

Draggy? At places.

Lacks story? To an extent, yes, but makes up for it intelligently with the way it is told.

Dismal? Absolutely NOT.

Masterpiece? Almost, but NO.

Contender? A very serious YES! 

Diamonds? Three and a half of them out of five. 

⭐⭐⭐1/2