Director Gunasekar tries to blend two contrasting plots-`love and politics’-but it goes awry since his screenplay fails to justify neither of them, leaving audience in despair. Director relied more on the `heroics’ (running over crumbling wooden bridge and flying over land mines) of the protagonist than showcasing a definite ‘plan’ to clean up political system (since everybody cannot kidnap minister’s fiancée). Similarly the love between the protagonists (kidnapper and hostage) is unpersuasive since she hates him until the last minute before eloping with him again. Even the unruly behavior of the protagonist towards an innocent girl irks the viewers. Director reserves all his `thoughts’ for the protagonist’s ‘outburst’ in climax instead of making him to unveil his plans to serve people systematically from the beginning. Or perhaps protagonist prefers ‘rhetoric’ to ‘action”. And director unnecessarily blames the ‘youth’ for factionists turning rulers and dynastic politics. If he is suggesting that youth should opt for political career than it is just `impractical’ since except for CPM (in few states) no political party offers monthly wages to political workers. His suggestion could be sagacious if the youth wins an election even as an independent (like in the film) or else it could remain his pipedream (truly socio-conscious youth, please excuse). Above all, the inappropriate fusion of ‘two plots’ forces the director to have two resolutions for his protagonist- one to expose evil minister and then to win his love. If you had keenly observed the antagonist’s love for his girl looks more deeper (as he spends siphoned money) than of the protagonist. This disparity remains unhindered.

Unquestionably director begins on a promising note by making vibrant college students to get involved in social activities but unnecessarily draws larger plans for them to scuttle his own theme. Other than just helping flood-affected people, he should have made them to address other major issues affecting common man like pure drinking water, good sanitation and poor infrastructure to substantiate his thought to push youth into politics. He should have also made the protagonist to announce his ‘agenda’ to grab people’s attention rather than forcing him to commit a heinous crime (abducting a girl) to fulfill a mission, though well-intended. Probably he felt that the dare-devil ‘heroics’ of the protagonist would make audience overlook the mismatch between a Home Minister and a student since it resulted in a pedestrian hide-and-seek game(demands no elaboration, agreed). If director believes that one independent MLA with just good faith and without any manifesto even for his own constituency can change the fate of our political system, then it is difficult to digest even for a great optimist. Even the conversations between the two `protagonists’ borders on male-chauvinism (quite a few dialogues) instead of giving an innocent captive her due. To make their love `believable’ director should have certainly worked on some strong reasons to make her to fall in love second time around but he makes it to happen just by physical proximity than on understanding each other. Is he under the assumption that school dropouts have no minds of their own?

Student Mahesh Babu looks like a partial humanist as he helps suffering people but his ‘bone-cracking’ ability dilutes it. His describing the impact of ‘thrashing’ borders on brutality. In jail, he lets off Irfan since he wants him to serve people but in next few scenes he kidnaps Irfan’s fiancée without even giving it a thought. He doesn’t even try to make the fear-stuck girl ‘comfortable’ but keeps ridiculing her, unbecoming of an idealist. He discovers love for the girl when she `bites’ his hand and even then he doesn’t treat her normally. He blames the ‘youth’ for all the political evils but he is reluctant to contest and prefers to remain behind the scenes. Aren’t ‘leaders’ supposed to lead from the front?

It’s a badly-etched role for Trisha since she loves the minister so much (even dreams about him) but all of a sudden decides against going home. It could have been better if her ‘transition’ has been validated with convincing reasons. Jumping on the shoulder of a kidnapper, in the pretext of kabbadi, makes her innocence pretentious.

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