Review: Couple Friendly

Film: Couple Friendly
Cast: Santosh Soban, Manasa Varanasi and Others.
Director: Ashwin Chandrasekar
Producer: UV Concepts – Ajay Kumar Raju.P
DOP: Dinesh Purushothaman
Editor: Ganesh Siva
Music: Aditya Ravindran
Rating: 3.5 stars

Director Ashwin Chandrasekar’s ‘Couple Friendly’ is an engaging relationship drama that is both relatable and also enjoyable at the same time. The film has a run time of 121 minutes, which is to say it is a minute over two hours. But then, the manner in which the story of the film draws you in to itself makes you feel like you’ve witnessed a considerable portion of the lives of the lead characters.

A neat plot with several significant takeaways, correct casting, good performances, exceptional music and excellent visuals all neatly packaged in a two-hour film, thanks to some super sharp editing, make this film a highly enjoyable entertainer.

Synopsis…
The story revolves around Shiva (Santosh Soban) and Manasa Varanasi (Mithra), both of them are new to the city of Chennai. While Shiva, who is a qualified interior designer looking for his first break, Manasa is looking to enter the IT industry. Shiva, to make ends meet, also works as as bike taxi driver.

One evening, Shiva drops a woman passenger at a women’s hostel. She makes a digital payment that does not come through. As she has already entered the hostel, the poor man continues to wait outside the women’s hostel, hoping that the woman will come out and make a payment of Rs 60.

It is at this point that he meets Mithra. He asks her if she stays there and asks her to pass on his phone number and the message that he is waiting for his money to his passenger inside the hostel. She does but the woman passenger doesn’t care. Shiva returns home without his money that night.

The next morning, Mithra vacates her hostel to go back to her native place. When she looks for a cab, she can’t find one but she sees the paper containing the number of Shiva and calls him. She tells him that she will pay both — the price of her ride and that of the female who did not pay him– if he drops her at the Koyambedu bus terminus. Shiva agrees. But what happens then is what the story is all about…

Casting and Performances:
Full marks to the entire direction team for the manner in which they have picked actors for the various parts in the film. Every actor perfectly fits the character he or she portrays on screen.

Both the lead actors Santosh Soban and Manasa Varanasi turn into the characters they portray on screen. These are not easy characters to portray but both actors do a phenomenal job to turn themselves into their parts.

They are ably supported by a set of gifted supporting actors, whose characters are well written. For instance, Yogi Babu or Livingston come in for only a brief while in the film, but yet, they deliver exactly what is expected of them.

Analysis:
The director needs to be congratulated for the manner in which he narrates the story. The lucid manner in which he coherantly presents the film makes the entire experience a very pleasant one. Occasionally, you have one or two scenes from the future. But these twists, you understand, are more to keep you interested in the story and invested in the plot.

The writing is very good and that is what makes this film a highly enjoyable entertainer.

Music director Aditya Ravindran deserves a word of special praise for his fantastic background score and his highly enjoyable numbers. Dinesh Purushothaman’s visuals are full of life and complement the wonderful performances and music on screen. Ganesh Shiva’s editing is sharp and to the point.

Verdict:
On the whole, Couple Friendly is easily this week’s best film to hit screens. Strongly recommended.