DHARALA PRABHU (2020)
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| Critic - No.180 |
Director: Krishna Marimuthu
Producer: Screen Scene Media Entertainment Pvt Ltd
Casts: Harish Kalyan, Vivekh, Tanya Hope
Language: Tamil
Genre: Comedy / Romance
Music: Anirudh Ravichander, Sean Roldan, Vivek-Mervin, Inno Genga, Madley Blues, Bhrath Shankar (also BGM), Kaber Vasuki, Ooorka
SYNOPSIS:
A shrewd fertility clinic owner, Kannadasan (Vivekh) convinces an unemployed and happy-go-lucky guy, Prabhu (Harish) to become a sperm donor. But little did the latter know that it would land him in trouble with his love of his life, Nidhi (Tanya Hope).
REVIEW:
Not many films have succeeded into translating the essence of a Hindi film aptly into the South Indian flavour. A good example is Settai (remake of Delhi Belly). Especially narrating a taboo issue like sperm donation to a relatively conservative South Indian audience is a challenge. But debut director, Krishna Marimuthu has done almost a perfect job in executing this up hill task.
Prabhu Govind (Harish Kalyan) is a passionate football player and his
only aim is to get a job in the sports quota. Prabhu lives a tension-free life
with his mom and grandma who run a traditional beauty parlor in Chennai. He
meets his love interest, Nidhi, a divorcee and life goes on well for Prabhu
until he meets a doctor Kannadasan (Vivekh) who runs a fertility clinic and
sperm bank and he is in search of a healthy sperm donor for his rich clients.
The most engaging and likable factor of the film is the chemistry between
the two lead characters, Kannadasan and Prabhu. As the turmoil progresses in
the story, the film warrants a whole range of emotions for Prabhu and Harish
gives his career best performance with a measured performance. Vivekh steals
the show through his witty one-liners and seasoned performance in emotional
scenes. The writing is very organic and seamless for a film that has ample
scope to be preachy.
Very casually, the film touches upon tons of issues such as classes in
marriage, single parents’ struggle to propel in their careers, predominately on
surrogacy that comes with a small shame for men to rely on another man to make their wife
pregnant. More than all that, what touched me the most is how the director
beautifully portrayed the female perspective of adoption. A woman usually has
10 months to “prepare” herself for motherhood. So isn’t it natural to feel a
complex fear when you are walking into an adoption agency, where a “ready-made”
child awaits you? Watch out for Tanya’s brilliant performance in the scene at
the children home.
The sparkling thing about the film is also how it treats serious issues
so lightly. There’s a dialogue that does, “If,
for some reason, your wife can’t cook one day, you order in food, right? Using
a sperm donor is not very different.” Come on, how easy can someone put
across a message so simply with a pinch of wit. The romance track between Tanya
and Harish, which serves as the backbone of the story, is shown subtly without
any over the top flimsy dialogues or stalking tracks.
Technically, the film oozes with class, colour and vibrancy. Both the art
director, Kamalanathan and cinematographer Selvanathan ensure each frames are
treat to our eyes. With 8 music composers on board, the film doesn’t disappoint
you and gives you the apt soothing tracks to elevate each chapters of the film.
Out of the 8 tracks, Sean Rolden’s Kadhal
Theevey and Anirudh’s title track come out the most striking with the
folksy latter track slightly sticking out of the urban tone sustained
throughout.
Despite the stacks of positives, the film does have a fair share of minor
setbacks that draws back on the engagement factor at times. Firstly, the
running time that gets on you by the time you reach the middle of the second
half. For an instance, characters like the girl with a crush on Prabhu could
have been axed to make the film crispier. The film also suffers from tonal
shifts in the second half where comedy and drama shuttles quite roughly before
we hit an overly stretched but sweet climax. That said, director Krishna
Marimuthu, executes a genuine remake about a very relatable issue that will
leave you smiling as you leave the cinema halls.
VERDICT:
Colourful, funny and sharp, ‘Dharala Prabhu’ is a faithful remake of ‘Vicky Donor’ with a perfect cast ensemble.
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