The poster in the back drop says 'A film by Karthik', which dissolves to 'A film by Gautham Vasudev Menon' as we come out of the theatre. So in that sense, a film by Kartik is a film by Gautham Vasudev Menon. Outside this larger plot, of a story hidden in another story, Vinnaithaandi Varuvaayaa is little more than a film on the beaten track - love against all hurdles. Still, the Malayali heroine vs a Tamil hero angle is interesting and must be seen against the backdrop of Menon being a Malayali who has been making consistent super-hit Tamil films. Here, he tries to grapple with the usual tricky issues of language and religion and bring them to the forefront.

Sadly however, there is absolutely no movement in the film. Both Trisha and Silambarasan are 'over exposed' and overused. It becomes tiring to watch them and their dilly dallying love life after a point. The structure of the screenplay is confusing, lacks logic, coherence and consistency becoming patchy and stagnant. A lovely opening cfredit sequence, with excellent graphics accompanied by a top-notch musical track by Rahman simply gets clogged as the film progresses. The story line merely becomes a quiz game, as to who kissed whom, when and how and why.

Fatally for the film, none of the characters stayed in my mind. In fact, there is no character development right through the story. Silambarasan remains where he is from the beginning till the end of the film carefully protecting his hero image. Caught between protecting his 'young super star' image and playing a restrained simple middle class Hindu Tamil boy lost in love, he just cannot carry the weight of the film on his shoulders. Trisha's character had lot more promise but she is just treated as a lady beautiful, which she is, but little more and this prevents her becoming a fully fledged flesh and blood character. The so called love between them is simply unconvincing with the chemistry between them just not working. In fact, it is a relief that they are not together. Strangely enough, in a brief scene where Jessie meets a boy proposed by the family, their chemistry works much better. The portrayals of the girl's family and the boy's family members have no shades or depths to them and offer no insights, other than the usual posturing. The only brief relief comes from unexpected quarters like the role of Karthik's companion played by his cinematographer friend. This is a very interesting characterization and he provides the much needed respite in the film. Also, the role of Karthik's sister is very promising. But then both these characters remain half baked as ultimately the film mainly focusses only on the lead pair. KS Ravikumar, the real life director, acts the same role in the film, with whom Karthik is working as assistant director. Ravikumar's characterization and dialogues too offers nothing more than silly cliches as far as Tamil feature filmmaking is concerned.

The cinematographer, Manoj Parahamsa, who has done amazing work earlier in Eeram (2009), is unable to strike a chord between the subject and his visuals with this film. AR Rahman's occasional background score bits like the beginning title sequence and two songs are absolutely brilliant but the rest is pretty mundane. The fight sequences are banal, and move against characterization, especially when one compares them to Menon's earlier features. The locations are confusing, even Allapuzha, where the girl's family comes from, looks like some patchy film set and gets confused with all the exotic locations and sets used for the various song sequences.

Finally, Vinnaithaandi Varuvaayaa is neither an interesting or convincing love story nor an interesting analysis of Tamil and Kerala society. It is not even a good quiz about which story is within which story or who kissed whom. If it is simply to be treated as a commercial film using an new twist and a plot with no care or concern for all that is realism or natural or logical or exploratory, well, in that category too it is not convincing. If it is a film purely to ogle at the heroine Trisha and hero Silambarasan, desperately trying to fall in love, well it looks sad. It's like the serene flowing back waters of Allapuzha becoming stagnant in the Coovam river. The film is presented by Udayanidhi Stalin, the son of the Deputy Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu, MK Stalin, so I am sure all efforts will be made to market the film agressively and ensure it's a success.