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Boys
Director: Shankar
Cast: Sidharth,Nakul,Bharat,Sai,Manikandan,Harini,Vivek.
 When a reputed film maker and his crew with a repertoire of some good work behind them, push you down a quagmire of sleazy embarrassing situations, that leaves a bad taste in the mouth, what does one do? Nothing! Except come out of the theater with a feeling of one's sensibilities assaulted, one's intelligence insulted, and having been the victim of some con game!
The Cast
It's mainly five guys and a girl, all debutants and starry eyed, all excited about bagging a break with Shankar. But after watching how they have been depicted in the film, one wonders whether they will still carry the same feeling of elation! It's not that they've done a bad job, it's only that they've done Shankar's bidding. Managing to get noticed is Nakul, impish, chubby and cute (brother of actress Devayani). Harini has a bland demeanor throughout. The rest of the huge cast including Vivek, a first timer in a Shankar film is wasted and are just a bunch of 'I'm also there in a Shankar-Film group.
The crew
Shankar has in his earlier films got the best out of his technicians, but this time he's pulled them down with him. Whatever little impact a couple of songs of Rehman's had while viewing bits of them in the teasers on channels, sounds unbearably noisy while viewing the film. This is further marred by some poor choreography and sheer bad picturisation. Shankar uses his camera(Ravi K.Chandran) more as a voyeur, showing some embarrassing close ups of what the 'boys' are looking at, like deep down a woman's blouse as she bends down. This makes one wonder who's one 'growing up ' the 'boys', the director, or the camera!
Sabu Cyril has taken pains over his sets, like the one made of old, discarded materials. But the impact is lost in the messy script and picturisation. Sujata, one of our popular and respected writers is appalling, he goes overboard with his dialogue, explicit and liberally strewn with double entendres. The whole crew comes out with their image a little soiled.
The Scenes and Situations
It's five boys' and a girl with one of them loving,eloping and marrying the girl, the rest backing the duo. Here is a sample of some of the scenes.
One of the 'boys' walks around with his fly open, teases a girl, who retorts irritatingly about his open zip. Replies the boy cheekily, "I knew you'll look there and tell me, that's why I kept it open", or some such thing. An elderly woman bends down to do some chore, and you have another 'boy' peeping down her blouse. Yet another 'boy' rubs his bottom against that of a woman in joyful glee. Munna the 'hero' runs around in the buff on the busy 'Anna Salai', his antics embarrassing your senses, not exactly the impulsive fun situation the director probably meant it to be.
In yet another scene, the 'Boys' hire a prostitute, and their antics as they try to prove to each other that they 'did it'[ when they didn't ], provides some more embarrassing moments for the viewer! And there's no respite, the narration continues in the same manner, the 'Boys' jostling and fondling women, all shown blatantly & explicitly. Their antics should have landed the 'Boys' in a lock up or in some juvenile home. But for Shankar it's all about 'growing up'!
Inspiration
Some Hollywood films like 'Fast Forward', and the successful Kasturiraja directed 'Thulluvatho Ilamai' seem to be the films from which Shankar has liberally borrowed his ideas and situations . Forgetting that 'Thulluvatho ....' despite its embarrassing moments (for which it was awarded an A certificate) was a sensitively crafted film, with a realistic depiction of adolescent growing up, backed by a well thought out script.
Finally, 'BOYS', Shankar's latest much hyped multicrore bonanza, is the biggest con game in recent times, a great celluloid Cheat!
Malini Mannath
Published on 7th Sep, 2003
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