Gulu Gulu is a dark comedy starring Santhanam in the lead role. The movie is directed by Rathnakumar of Meyaadha Maan and Aadai fame. And the music is scored by Santhosh Narayanan.
Premise
Santhanam is a travel junkie who was actually born in the tribal community. He has a thing if someone asks him for help, he would even bring the roof down. He is involved in three incidents that interlinks for something big at the end.
Writing/ Direction
Santhanam’s character is very well written, though it’s mostly subtle, his backstory and how his natural attitude is connected in the present is neatly shown. He gets one routed and believably executed mass scene in the initial stage, also cleverly continued without being a namesake hero elevation sequence. However his flashback narration would’ve been in live action instead of being in the animated form, obviously due to unfortunate budget constraints. Santhanam has very minimal dialogues in the film, it wouldn’t have been an issue if there were enough dosage of humour in the film, made by the other artists. But the lack of comedy is the main reason for the engagement to be on and off. The supporting characters are half-baked and not memorable enough. The script is in the familiar black comedy zone, following the treatment of what this genre usually does. The screenplay is a literal example of a mixed bag. Certain sequences seem to be strong in the paper, but not likeable enough while translating to the cinematic format. Some average plot-points are elevated nicely on-screen by the artist’s performances. In both the halves, some parts are pretty enjoyable and some are very boring. There are a bunch of quirky ideas that excite instantly as moments but end up as flat scenes without adding valuable situations to highlight them. But absolutely no complaints with the climax, the final fifteen minutes was like one roller coaster ride with things coming together superbly and blasting out, had that Sundar. C flavour of finale.
Performances
This would’ve most probably been the toughest movie for Santhanam to be a part of, by controlling his mouth to the fullest, even his body language was very simplistic. But he has done a very good job, with a realistic presence throughout. Good to see Pradeep Rawat of Ghajini fame after a long time, he has played the ruthless baddie part well. There are countless other artists who shine at one or two instances, but then simply exist without doing much.
Technicalities
This is a mighty film in terms of many technical aspects. But music and editing are not a part of them, middling work by Santhosh Narayanan. Follows his typical template songs and his background score could have had more variety. The film could be trimmed by 20 minutes easily, by chopping off a few boring bunches, the attempt to rape angle in the later half is of no use. Also, certain scenes felt like going on for a very long time. Classy camera work, beautiful frames and rich colour tones, the Aadai combo strikes in terms of delivering appealing visuals. Excellent sound effects and mixing, very lively sounding depending on the situations and the clarity is great too.
Bottomline
A dark comedy that had the potential to evolve as an entertaining experience ended up just as a mediocre outing due to the uneven screenplay. The freshness in certain ideas is not converted to its fullest on-screen.
Rating – 3.5/5
