Balle Vellaiya Thevaa (BVT) marks the fourth film of actor Sasikumar this year after Tharai Thappattai, Vetrivel and Kidari, not taking into account his cameo in Appa. Incidentally, it is his third production venture this year!
If you think BVT is about Vellaya Thevan, the Commander-in-Chief of Veerapandiya Kattabomman, you have stepped into a wrong film. If a title has to have a connect with the story, then debut director Solai Prakash does it with the repeat phrase of Balle Vellaiya Thevaa through part of the song and also by Sasikumar and Kovai Sarala whenever they get hyper.
Usually in Sasikumar’s films, there will not be any dearth of family sentiments or humor or action, but in BVT one needs to search hard for the story in vain. You try hard to figure out what the film is all about till the very end.
Sasikumar comes to a village with his grandfather and mom Rohini who works in a post office. He instantly gets friendly with Kovai Sarala, her husband Sangili Murugan and a character called Ramesh. There is also a reference of Kangal Irandaal and the swaying of head behind Sasikumar in this too. Kovai Sarala is called Selfie Kathayi but you wonder the relevance of this till the end credits roll. All the characters in the film do random things that could baffle you big time.
In the name of comedy, the artists churn out things that bring your annoyance out rather than your chuckle. There are some heavy duty emotional scenes out of nowhere without a rhyme or reason. This seems to be the pattern in the entire film.
It is sad to see artists like Rohini get totally wasted. Heroine Tanya has nothing to do but to give some steely glares at Sasikumar in the initial scenes. One nice thing is we get to hear her speaking her lines. It must be one of those rare films when a heroine feels very proud about her family’s poor antecedence! Sasikumar is his usual self. At times, Kovai Sarala makes you go crazy with her screech.
You remember Darbuka Siva’s title score because it keeps getting played out. His BGM in certain places is decent. That aside, other departments of filmmaking do their required job.
If the director had made up his mind about his story and had narrated sincerely, Balle Vellaiya Thevaa would have made you say Balle Sabash! But sadly, it does not happen.
Verdict: The usual strengths of Sasikumar that we see in his rural based films are missing in BVT
