10 Endrathukulla (Tamil, 2015)

The film reveals its intent of not being a serious watch in the very first scene. Credits to Vijay Milton for the conviction & the way he treats this road-trip saga taking it on an unfrequented path for the most part.

Vikram is let to enjoy & when he plays a relaxed, carefree hunk, very few can match the off-the-cuff performance he brings to screen. He looks at home with his timing in comedy, the high octane action & the curious-cat he plays towards the end. Samantha shares the screen for an ample amount of time, looks gorgeous and her kiddish role slowly grows on you like it does on Vikram’s character. There is something else she does and kudos for not over-doing things with it.

Milton’s credentials as a film-maker show up with smart juxtaposition of comedy & cruelty of one of the villains Pasupathy & in a few exchanges between the lead players (Reason for the girl’s setting an alarm for food).

In Imman’s music, only Vroom Vroom lingers on. The efforts of Bhaskaran’s cinematography, Sreekar Prasad’s deft editing of the Guy Ritchie style action blocks designed by Supreme Sundar & Lee Whittaker (Car chases) are commendable and somehow shadow the shoddy work with the graphics.

This is a typical commercial fare but credit is due for not toeing the line of personal vendetta for hero on the villain, villain on the hero, flashback to that effect and what not! This one instead, tries to package the same in a different setup. There is a flashback but the film itself mocks it.

Barring Pasupathy, the villains are mere caricatures. They fizzle out after getting built-up heftily ending up creating loose ends in the process. The same can be said of the twist at the end. There are twists which tease you for not getting the hints & then there are twists like this one which shock you – not because you got beat by it but because it is so dumb!

Female objectification crosses thresholds at more than one point in the film – The needless item song with Charmy & 2 other scenes involving Samantha. Something that wasn’t expected of the maker of a film like Goli Soda.

The sagging portions of the second half have to do with the weak climax & Vikram being only physically present in the screenplay for a prolonged period in the end. These make the film crash land to an abrupt end.