A Kollywood dream in the US

Balasubramaniam’s life oscillates between his domineering father and Kollywood dreams. This is the crux of Melvin Durai’s rib-tickler. An ardent fan of actor Rajinikanth, Bala’s ultimate aim is to make a film starring the Superstar and Kamal Haasan that would bear the initials ABC (A Balasubramaniam Creation). It reminds me of ABCL, the production company of the Bachchans. But, thanks to his father, Bala graduates in engineering and shifts to the US to fulfil his father’s dollar dream.

The 29-year-old Tambrahm becomes the director of an exercise equipment company in Pennsylvania, USA. Now the only thing left is to get a suitable bride to complete the family. But Bala is no hunk — he’s rotund and a desi at heart, apparently not the perfect combination for a groom. Nevertheless, he’s determined to find love in the US before his mother finds a bride. He scans matrimonial profiles and after tremendous effort zeroes in on few but in vain. Bala’s bride-hunting misadventures are humorous. He then settles for three prospective brides his mother chooses. However this is not his destiny.

The message is dense but the treatment is simple. Durai handles a sensitive theme with finesse. Bala is a typical Tambrahm boy who cannot aspire to become anything other than an engineer or a doctor. An exact opposite is his cousin who enters the Indian Idol competition. The entire family is proud of him.

Bala’s dreams are dismissed, as his father decides everything. While he takes pride in Bala’s US job, he loses no opportunity to point out that Bala is ‘well-rounded’. Bala’s mother is a typical homemaker who is looking for a Victorian daughter-in-law, someone who is not a spoilt brat and capable of inheriting her prized Corelle dishes.

Durai shines through the funny dialogues between the son and his parents. Sample this. Bala says that he and his parents should take a cab to the prospective bride’s home to impress them. His father retorts, “You are in Amricks. What more there is to impress?” Or when Bala opines that he doesn’t want to marry one of the girls, his fathers cuts him off by saying that she is the best bride who will bring home a lot of dowry. The occasional sprinkling of Rajinikanth’s onscreen dialogues lightens the mood.

Durai also takes the opportunity to turn the tables on traditionalists. For example, the cartoonist that Bala’s father admires turns out to be a woman.

Intertwined are stories about friendship, finding love and also creating one’s own identity in a demanding world. And for a change, it’s not a woman who’s struggling to create an identity in a patriarchal society, but a man n

—janani@expressbuzz.com