Movie Review- Vedigundu Murugesan

There's a certain deftness that you need to have, to handle both comedy and sentiment in the same vein. Moorthy, whose 'Vedigundu Murugesan' has just released, definitely displays that.

The film is not a mindless comedy, though it is really funny for most part. Pasupathy playing the title part, he's the kind of petty thief who can extend his vocal chords to endear people, very much like the character Suriya played in 'Mayavi'. And pretty much like Suriya's role, Murugesan is also kindhearted, and gives refuge to a mentally ill Ponni, who was also his classmate.

So the film is a jolly peek into the travails in his life, which give way to a terribly funny first half. Pasupathy's courtroom scenes are so rib tickling, and his arguments with the judge, are downright funny. Playing judge is Nirmala Periasamy, popular TV anchor, looking emaciated and out of place.

And there's also Vadivelu, in a role Alert Aarumugam, who is clearly back in form. Alert Aarumugam has all it takes to be immortalized like Vadivelu's other popular roles like Kaipulla, Naai Sekar or Telex Pandian.

Joining Pasupathy and Ponni is Jyothirmayi, playing a cop who is in love with Pasupathy. While their romance is passable, the cop's reason to fall in love with a thief because he's helping Ponni, is completely shallow. However, things turn completely topsy turvy, when Ponni is raped and Pasupathy fights for her justice, which forms the second half, which could have been filmed more interestingly.

Pasupathy fits the bill as Vedigundu Murugesan, and does a decent job even at romancing his girl. But taking the cake is his sense of timing and highly authentic Virudhunagar diction. Jyothirmayi is just about watchable, despite her tacky dress sense.

Folk music can be interesting. But Dheena's score in the film is definitely not. The composer is generally loud, but there are places when his music is so loud that you prefer silence to any music. He almost makes up for it with two good melodies, sung by Padmashri Yesudas and Madhu Balakrishnan each.

Bottomline: Clearly time pass flick.