Mozhi (2007) – the language of romcom.

You know you’ve been watching too many old Hindi movies when:

1. Hrithik’s less than perfect Urdu diction bothers you.
2. Hindi accents in all movies leave so much to be desired.
3. the heroines look like they could do with a decent meal.
4. the heroes look like they’re trying to compete with Schwarznegger.
5. the songs sound like terrible background noise.

So, what do you do? You head down South, to the land where the leading ladies are not on starvation diet, where nobody speaks Hindi, and where modern masala is still “cracktastic”! And who do we meet there? Two regular guys on their way to romance and comedy!!! 

Karthik (Prithviraj) and Viji (Prakashraj) are two bachelor keyboard players for a music director in Tamil films. Their lack of at least one spouse per head lands them in trouble with their apartment secretary Ananthakrishnan (Brahmanandam). He asks them to leave their “family-oriented” building. Being decent, family-fearing folk, the two decide to look for another apartment.

Just when they are about to start house-hunting, Karthik discovers that the light-bulb of his life and the music in his ears, in other words, his dream girl, also lives in the same building. Viji and Karthik instantly resolve to become permanent residents of the no-bachelors-at-all building and become a constant irritant in the eyes of Ananthakrishnan.

But I am running ahead of myself and havent explained how Karthik fell in love. He always knew that when he’d meet the woman of his dreams, a newly-lit bulb above him would light his path toward his soul-mate. Viji was unconvinced that the almighty would choose to squander precious electricity to light up Karthik’s romance in these days of electrical power shortages. But he was proved wrong when Karthik’s light lit up on seeing an unknown beauty (Jyotika) dishoom a roadside bully. He was smitten on spot by her martial skills. Before he could declare himself though, the lady disappeared in an unfortunately placed autorickshaw, leaving Karthik in lonely contemplation of his lit-up bulb.

As it turns out, it all ends well. Karthik discovers the beauty is none other than his neighbour Archana. The rest of the film is taken up with Karthik’s wooing which doesnt go as well as you’d expect from a filmi hero. The first hurdle is Archana’s disability – she’s a deaf-mute. Karthik is undaunted by the fact that she can neither hear nor talk and proceeds to learn sign-language to communicate with her.

But that isnt the end of poor Karthik’s trials. Archana is a very angry young woman indeed and refuses to let anyone close to her. She lost her parents at a young age (her father abandoned the family upon learning of her defect and her mother died soon after) and allows no one but her old grandmother and dear friend Sheela (Swarnamalya) to enter her charmed circle. So Karthik has his work cut out for a difficult wooing. Of course, he does it beautifully and is successful in the end.  But how? You need to see the movie to find that out…

Interwoven with Karthik-Archana’s tale are the stories of carefree Viji, lovely but lonely Sheela, always irritated Ananthakrishnan, mentally unbalanced Professor Jnanprakasham, and the silly Priti (Neelima) - all very nicely sketched and executed. There are lots of light moments – provided mostly by Prakashraj – and even with inadequate subtitles, I was giggling through large parts of the movie.

The best part is of course the  romance. Its beautifully done – I loved the imaginative ways Karthik came up with to understand and overcome Archana’s handicap and her distrust of men. Karthik as played by Prithviraj is the ultimate dream-man – he is sensitive, caring, understanding and persistent without being stalker-ish. Jyothika is cute but her acting was a bit over the top and her Archana was a bit too angry for my taste. But she certainly kicked ass and the only dishoom-dishoom in the movie was done by her.

Of the other actors, I liked Swarnmalya and Prakashraj a lot. Swarnmalya was lovely and I’d love to see more of her. Prakashraj looked too old to be playing the careless young bachelor, but was fun, nonetheless. He even had this for people who missed Ranbir Kapoor’s towel act:

And if you havent gathered that already, let me spell it out – this fun romcom gets the OiG stamp of approval. Go watch it!