| By Namma Ooru Velan INTRO: Ullasam is ABCL's first venture into Tamil movies, so they must have wanted to begin with a bang... Instead they ended up with a hssss!
SYNOPSIS: The story...? What story? It's just a rehash of Kaathal Desam and Duet, with elements of Thalapathi. Well if you insist... the *story* is about Guru (Ajith) whose role model is baddie GK (Raguvaran) and Dev (Vikram) whose role model is do-gooder Thangiah (SPBala). The irony is Guru is Thangiah's son and Dev is GK's son. Both Guru and Dev fall for Mega (Maheswari) - sounds familiar? And that pretty sums up the movie, with lots of songs and fight scenes for good
meas ure.
(Vikram & Maheshwari in a still from 'Ullasam')
EVALUATION: Although boasting of impressive names in its credits, Ullasam doesn't bring out the best in any of them. Only Raguvaran has done some decent acting. Srividya is completely wasted. Mockery of Indian customs and traditions should not be tolerated. Bringing Amman statue from the temple to the house is no laughing matter - it amounts to blasphemy. Also calling someone else *appa* is just not Tamil culture. Why both these mistakes were made - look at who the producers and directors are and therein lies the answer. The antics by Maheswari (who I suspect was signed just to show off her figure and for the kissing scenes) was far too dangerous to portray as common. They have also unashamedly lifted a scene from Kathal Desam where one hero nearly sees the photo of the other hero's dream girl - right down to the music! The picturisation of the song Cholaari chocholaari was an exact replica of Indian's Telephone manipol, including the foreign setting (Switzerland, this time)! Even the dance movements were similar!
MUSIC: Ilayaraaja's son, Karthik Raja, has tried his level best to score good songs which ended up resembling neither
Ilayaraja nor AR Rahman. Most of the songs were distractions and unneccessary in the movie. The songs on its own, I suppose, are alright. Veesum kaatru, Konjum manjal poovey, Yaaro yaar yaaro and Muthey muthamma are listenable. Unlike the non-filial sons in the movie, Karthik has roped in his father to sing Yaaro yaar yaaro!
CONCLUSION: Ullasam is a pathetic excuse for a movie. And it will probably be a bad influence for teenagers and kids, as
well!
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