Cast: Ajay Dhishan, R. K. Dhanusha, Pandiarajan, Sunil, Lakshmi Manchu, Indumathi Manigandan, Aaditya Kathir, Vivek Prasanna, Vijay Antony (cameo)

Crew: 

Written by Puthiya Parithi
Music and Editing by Vijay Antony
Cinematography and Direction by Ganesh Chandra
Produced by Fathima Vijay Antony, Vijay Antony, Ramajaneyulu Javvaji

Vijay Antony has been working on presenting his nephew Ajay Dhishan as a lead actor. After Maargan, the young actor is looking to connect with young audiences through his Pookie/ Bookie film. The movie released for Valentine's Day weekend last week in Tamil and now, on 20th February Telugu. Let's discuss about the film in detail. 

Plot: 

Kailash (Ajay Dhishan) and Aji (RK Dhanusha) are deeply in relationship over 6 years. They start a fight while returning from a function and on road, Kailash gets into fight with a driver. Trying to stop him, Aji slaps him and Kailash in return slaps her. As it happens on the road, people take videos and post it on social media. It goes viral and becomes a news as well. Hence, they both stop talking with each other and decide to break up. 

During the one year of their break-up, they try to forget each other in different ways. Aji joins a spiritual Guru (Sunil) ashram while Kailash joins a gym. She finds a friend in Rahul in the ashram and Kailash decides to try and meet other women. Both of them tend to try hard to forget the other but can they? If they can, why? If they cannot, then how will they meet? Watch Bookie movie to know more. 

Analysis:

Ajay Dhishan proved that he is a good actor in Maargan and he impresses here too. But the character arc is written in a very chaotic way that a flow seems to be missing. He did his best to be relatable as a young boy. Dhanusha is a revelation as she is very beautiful, natural and perfect for this role. Her performance is also good. Again, chaotic writing with unnecessary jumps in time do not maintain a flow. 

Writer tried to be innovative with parallel lives screenplay but the jump feels zig zag and gagish rather than natural and flowy. Hence, it feels like a collection of reels with makers trying to hard impress Gen-Z audiences. The film fails in building the relationship and then showcasing the intensity of emotions. Kushi film showcased how ego can rake in differences and this script needed such treatment. 

As audiences are not allowed to fully know the characters and understand, it feels like random at places while towards the climax, it does gather some momentum. But by then, the predictable twists and turns leave audiences almost exhausted. If the movie continued the first hour flow, the story might have been more relatable. Music by Vijay Antony is good in Tamil but translation lost the steam. Overall, movie could have been much better with talented leads but falls short of its own ambition. 

Positives:

Dhanusha is natural 
Ajay Dhishan is good
Manchu Lakshmi gets a funny role
First hour is decent
Production values are good

Negatives: 

Telugu translation of songs doesn't do a justice
Movie lacks innovation in second hour
Gets too loud at places 
Predictability

Bottomline:

The film takes predictable turns in second hour and loses the steam. 

 

Rating: 2.25/5 

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