This time, Ranjith uses Rajinikanth the Superstar to tell his message — land is the common man’s right. The story is simple… Migrants from Tamil Nadu settle in Dharavi and help build it, and run the city. When an evil politician-cum-land mafia don sets his eyes on their land, they revolt.

This time, Ranjith uses Rajinikanth the Superstar to tell his message — land is the common man’s right. The story is simple… Migrants from Tamil Nadu settle in Dharavi and help build it, and run the city. When an evil politician-cum-land mafia don sets his eyes on their land, they revolt.

After an uneven first half that takes its own sweet time to set up the high-concept premise, Tubelight finds some sure footing in the latter half, with the romance between Ram and Hema, which somewhat has the feel of a modern-day Sollamale. For how long can Ram hide his condition from the girl, and what kind of challenges does this pose? And the entry of a character from Ram’s not-so-distant past adds to the tension.

It has been a while since we had a film whose twists and double twists were genuinely surprising and in 24, we are kept slightly off-guard as to what might happen when a character does something. Vikram Kumar doesn’t sacrifice the internal logic of the story, so the twists always seem plausible and surprising.

Aarathu Sinam is not a frame-by-frame remake unlike many of the recent Malayalam remakes and some of the changes that the director has made to the plot work and make better sense in the context of the milieu where he sets his story.

…to Arunkumar’s credit, there is hardly any lull in the film for us to start thinking about such niggles, and we just go along on this entertaining ride.

Surprisingly, this remake works to a large extent (if you haven’t seen the original, even better), because the director, Bommarillu Bhaskar hasn’t made any drastic change to the original script and manages to capture the emotional drama of the scenes.

This is Udhayabhanu Maheswaran’s big break and as Feelings Ravi, he is a riot. And despite the lack of speaking lines, Munishkanth (aka Ramdas) manages to be funny. But it is Shiva, who keeps the laughs coming with his terrific comebacks and one-liners. His segments are so ridiculous that we notice the humour quotient dipping whenever he is not in the scene.

The standout is Doubt Senthil, as a naive assistant director who keeps using the wrong similar-sounding English word — bald for bold, impotent for important, Akila Kurosawa for Akira Kurosawa and so on. In the end, despite the considerable failings, it is these touches that ensure that we leave the theatre with a smile on our face.

…even though the film doesn’t come together as effectively as it should have, there are moments that keep us glued.