Trisha Illana Nayanthara (2015)

In this age of instant protests and calls for ban, Adhik Ravichandran, for a debutant, is audacious enough in having made this romantic comedy that sends up things that the so-called upholders of culture hold sacred, and where the romance is mainly fuelled not by heart but by hormones and plenty of alcohol. One of his two heroines offers a drink to the hero and asks him to use her as the side dish, while the second downs two beer bottles at the same time and tells him to piss off when he tells her not to drink. One doesn't mind admitting that she has had sex after breaking up with him and the other accuses him of not trying to make out with her. One character tells the hero that virginity is as dead as dinosaurs! And despite behaving like the average Tamil cinema hero (who considers TASMAC a home away from home, lectures women on morals while lusting after them all the time), his hero comes across as a sap who always finds out that he can never command the interest of a woman.

The film is about Jeeva (a very convincing GV Prakash who seems to have lost the inhibition that could be sensed in his debut, Darling), who falls in love with his childhood friend Ramya (Anandhi). When she breaks up with him, he instantly chooses to go out with his other childhood friend Aditi (Manisha Yadav). But she, too, ditches him, and now, Jeeva goes back to wooing Ramya, little realising that the game has changed. His uncle Visu (VTV Ganesh) and Ramya's aunt Simran (Simran) try to help him out and act as his love gurus, though they clearly see him for what he is — a pathetic loser.

The best thing that can be said about Trisha Illana Nayanthara is that it is unabashed about being crass and sexist and wears its 'A' certificate as a badge of honour. There are innumerable innuendos (at one point, Ramya says, "Naan onna thorandhu kaataren") and adult comedy (Jeeva makes out with a doll as practice) and misogynist dialogues, but they do not come across as exploitative but rather harmless fun. And the film also has moments of genuine absurdity (like three pregnancies happening at the same time with an MGR-like figure taking charge, a psycho who pops up now and then to throw bricks at everyone) that prove us that the director clearly knows what he is doing.

But the blatant pandering to the fan bases of Ajith and Vijay (an unfortunate trend in Tamil films of late) becomes rather annoying after a point. And the uninvolving songs (save for Mutham Kodutha Maayakaari) and a sub-plot involving Simran and her scientist husband (Yuhi Sethu) only make the film longer than it should ideally be.