Poi (2007) - Tamil Movie Review

Ranking: 2.5/5

Cast: Uday Kiran, Prakash Raj, Vimala, Avinash
Director: K. Balachander
Music: Vidyasagar

The story is about how lies can have a domino effect and how a simple harmless lie may cascade into something really dangerous and life threatening. K.B. does really brilliant mega serials and as a veteran he is trying to adapt and compete with the younger generation of directors. He does fit in in some places but then there are others where he is grossly lacking. To his credit he is one of the best directors that Tamil movie ever had for the longest time with his active era extending from 1965 through early1990's. And this movie not to be outdone by his previous hits surely has the element that makes K.B's style of direction unique but it also sadly acts as the movies flaw and downfall.

Kamban (Uday Kiran) is the son of Valluvan (Avinash) a straightforward politician who will not bend laws even if it is to get his son out of jail when arrested for no fault of his. The opposition party take advantage of this and bail Kamban out and also publicly announce Kamban joining his father's opposition party. Kamban did not know any of this would happen and he did not want to hurt his father. To escape from the embarrassment Kamban escapes to Srilanka till everything cools down a bit.

In Lanka he meets Ganguly a Bengali immigrant whom he befriends and shares a room with. During a stroll on the beach his eye catches a diary with Tamil poems and starts liking the poet. the imaginary father he had created in his mind instigates him to fall in love with the author of the poems and Kamban takes it upon himself as a challenge to make Shilpa (Vimala) fall in love with him. But Vimala who is vacationing with her brother is a achiever and does not believe in wasting time in love.

What happens? Do things work out? Does the imaginary father or the imaginary fate (Prakash Raj) that Kamban creates in his brain win? What happens to Vimala? All to be seen in the later part of the movie.

The story is no doubt a family subject. It has elements of mother sentiment, love, husband-wife doubts, imaginary father and fate, father sentiment, annoying third wheel from Bombay who claims that he was in love with the heroine since she was in 5th or 6th standard, etc. It could have been a commercial movie hadn't there been too many slowing factors. As far as acting goes everyone seems to be on the good page but then the story itself lacked the speed and interest which was lost due to introduction of many unwanted characters. It is okay for one time watch although you might be asking yourself again and again why you are doing this to yourself. Uday Kiran was a promising young Telugu actor who landed himself into trouble after breaking the engagement with Chiru's daughter and now his break into the Tamil industry seems nothing but bleak.

Try it out and let me know if you feel otherwise.