In most of his movies, Santhanam's part is almost completely redundant - always playing the guy who tags along with the "hero". But in this case, there can be no TVSK without him. He is to TVSK what Will Smith is to Hitch. The story involves Kumar (Siddharth), a software engineer who is either disinterested or tongue-tied around girls- thanks to his past experiences. When a new girl joins his workplace, he seeks the help of Love Guru Mokia (Santhanam) to help him woo her. As hurdles keep coming their way, the rest of the film sees Mokia help Kumar to surmount them. While the story is very simple and even the directions the screenplay takes are hardly novel, the film works because Santhanam works. He overshadows every other actor in the film, who are merely left saying things so he could respond with a spectacularly timed one-liner. Just when I feared he was getting monotonous with his brand of nakkal-based comedy, he yet again proves me wrong by giving a hilarious performance.
The one good thing the film's marketing campaign did was to keep away all the good stuff away from promotion materials. I walked in right after watching Man of Steel, and expected to see a nonsensical trash. I was happy to be surprised. As the film's narrator in the first few minutes, RJ Balaji, who debuts on the silver screen, is rather decent. It is when he shows up in front of us that he begins to disappoint. Most of his lines appear to be self-written and he basically rehashes the things he says on air and to not so good results. Besides Balaji, director Sundar C. assembles a large ensemble of comedy actors we have admired in the recent past: the plump girl from Neethane, Dilli Ganesh playing Bombay Ganesh, Bosskey, Manobala, Chitra Lakshmanan and also an actor each from Neram and Soodhu Kavvum. In spite of them, Santhanam, with a joke hit rate of over 80 percent gets all the deserved laughs. It's a Santhanam show all the way, but let's not forget Siddharth for channeling his Boys days. His appearance and a certain scenes will often remind you of his Munna. Oh, the film also stars Hansika.
The film is hardly a comedic home-run. I would recommend it, but with a conditions apply sign. It has nothing else to offer besides Santhanam at his career best. The central love story is itself a big yawn. Kumar knows nothing about Sanjana but goes to the extent of killing himself after facing rejection. Since when did suicide become the pinnacle of displaying love? I chose to ignore these issues because at that moment it felt like I was nitpicking. Also, I had a rather swell time. Despite the fact that the film follows the 'Rom-Com with a Liar' template, complete with an airport climax, to the tee, it salvages itself solely by being high on laughs.
Beneath all the humor, the film finds a way to make a point about the male hypocrisy. Be it the double standards brothers display upon knowing that someone loves their sister or the way Indian cinema has taught us that it is okay for men to accost and creep a woman into submission, I found TVSK to be a welcome respite from the unbearable 'intha-ponnungala-ipdi-thaan' attitude. For that, I must tip my proverbial hat to Sundar C. But then the film throws an unfunny homophobic joke at us; so I don't know what to make of the film's worldview.