Review of movie Vantha Rajavathaan Varuven

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Rating:2.5/5

Vantha Rajavathaan Varuven opens with Raghunanthan (Nasser, in a role that he could do in his sleep), a rich businessman in Madrid, telling his grandson Adhi (STR) that he wishes to reunite with his daughter Nandhini (Ramya Krishnan, in a role that turns out to be underwhelming because of the writing), whom he had driven out of their home for marrying a man (Prabhu, who performs this role in the same vein in which he uttered the now infamous “Enna Koduma Saravanan Idhu” line in Chandramukhi) of her choice 20 years ago. So, Adhi comes to India and ingratitaes himself into Nandhini’s household as Raja, a driver. How the young man convinces his aunt to forgive her father and reunite with her family forms the plot.

If there is one term that could describe Vantha Rajavathaan Varuven, it is old-fashioned. The film is a remake of the Telugu hit Attarintiki Daredi, but actually, almost every element of its plot harks back to the commercial melodramas of the 90s. Think Minsara Kanna, except that here, the super-rich hero decides to pose as someone else for the sake of family instead of romance. The been-there-seen-that vibe only becomes stronger because director Sundar C, who made his name in that era, films it with a sensibility that is so distinctly 90s. We get two heroines – one traditional (Catherine Tresa, who gets to shake a leg with STR in a song, but is actually the third wheel), another modern (Megha Akash, whose performance is as minimal as her costumes), comic sidekicks (Yogi Babu, Robo Shankar and VTV Ganesh) who constantly break the fourth wall by referring to the hero’s past glories, a plethora of supporting characters, all of whom are rather inconsequential, action blocks that exist only for the hero to show off his ‘mass’, innumerable songs (the music is by Hip Hop Tamizha) that turn out to be unintended bathroom breaks, and some emotional drama just to make us believe that these are characters with feelings.