Review: Hi

Film: Hi
Director: Vishnu Edavan
Cast: Kavin, Nayanthara, K Bhagyaraj, Radhika Sarathkumar, Prabhu, VTV Ganesh, Kaviya Arivumani, Kureshi, Aadhithya Kathir, Sathyan, Renji Panicker and others.
Producers: SS Lalit Kumar, Vignesh Shivan, Nayanthara & Umesh Kumar Bhansal
Director Of Photography: Rajesh Shukla
Editor: Philomin Raj
Music Director: Jen Martin
Art Director: Kannan.S
Rating: 3.5 stars

Director Vishnu Edavan’s ‘Hi’ is a romantic comedy that makes your heart light. More significantly, it gets your mind to relax. It is a simple, feel-good entertainer that doesn’t preach. Yet, in its own gentle way, the film makes some substantial points on relationships, responsibilities and that hard to understand but difficult to ignore feeling called love.

‘Hi’ is about Mayilsamy (Kavin), a timid introvert by nature but a sincere and kind soul, who, for some reason, believes that a man’s life is complete only when a girl falls in love with him. He has been desperately trying to get girls to fall in love with him from the time he was a child and yet, he has had little or no success.

He reaches his threshhold point when he gets turned down by his own uncle’s daughter Mythili (Kaviya Arivumani). The pain and shame is too much for him to bear and he chooses to leave home and go to Chennai, where he finds a job. Mayilsamy stays in an apartment, with his office colleagues for neighbours.

A year passes by. Another person, who has run away from home arrives in Chennai. The person in question this time is Devayani (Nayanthara).Devayani, who has nowhere to go to in Chennai, calls up her school friend who resides in the floor above Mayilsamy. She sends Mayil to pick up Devayani and the two become friends. What happens then is what the story is all about…

Kavin as Mayilsamy is just perfect. He is adorable as the good natured but timid and hopeless romantic who has low self-esteem. Together with Aadhithya Kathir (who plays his friend Ganapathi in the film), Kavin delivers a performance that is worthy of appreciation. His measured performance makes his character highly likeable and you eventually start finding yourself rooting for it.

Nayanthara is equally good as Devayani. Particularly in the latter half of the movie, Nayanthara’s performance shines, making the chemistry between the lead pair work. Part of the credit for that must also go to the writer of the story, who seems to have fashioned both their character arcs well.

Late actor, director and screenplay writer K Bhagyaraj delivers an outstanding performance as Kavin’s dad in the film. Other actors whose performances deserve to be commended include actors Kureshi, VTV Ganesh and Kaviya Arivumani.

On the technical front, Jen Martin scores handsomely with regard to his background score. However, his music for the songs can’t be placed in the same league. His music for one of the songs in the film impresses. Rajesh Shukla’s cinematography and Philomin Raj’s editing are on the dot — neat and commendable.

Vishnu Edavan’s film primarily works because of the way the characters have been written and the way the story has been narrated. At a superficial level, the story might appear to be simple but the director seems to have points to make with even this simple plot. Be it about how boys are prevented from expressing their pain in the form of tears, or about how aspersions are cast when a woman goes missing, or about how people unfairly associate bad outcomes with people they dislike — Vishnu Edavan has strong opinions on all of these. Not all the points he seems to make are valid. But he also has the good sense to not lecture on these topics. Instead, the developments in his story are such that they shine enough light on pertinent issues without taking away the focus from the main plot.

The climax is the highlight of the film and is easily the most enjoyable, if not the most impressive, sequence in the film. Credit for this sequence must go to director Vishnu and actors Kavin and Nayanthara.

In all, Hi is an enjoyable, neat, clean family entertainer that is bound to leave your lips with a smile and your heart with a feeling of satisfaction.

Highly recommended!