BOTTOM LINE
Boring Valentine Outing
OUR RATING
2/5
CENSOR
‘U’ Certified
What Is the Film Dev About?
Dev Ramalingam (Karthi) is the son of a wealthy businessman but is not spoilt. He has all the riches in the world and spends his time doing things that bring him happiness. What happens when such a righteous guy falls in love with an uptight businesswoman Meghana (Rakul Preet Singh) whose only focus is the career and achieving success?
How Is Karthi’s Performance?
After doing an out and out, mass village based flick Karthi is back with a new outing that has him playing a three sixty degrees different character background wise. However, the character traits are partially similar, righteousness and helping nature. The massy dialogue delivery changes to the urban look and words.
Karthi, as usual, does well. However, but there is nothing remarkable character wise as it seems too unbelievable. All the good qualities fitted into Dev to make him the perfect man feels boring. It runs the risk of turning into the kind of part essayed by Nithin in Srinivasa Kalyanam, but Karthi doesn’t let it slip that far luckily.
Direction by Rajat Ravishankar?
Rajath makes his debut with Dev. It is a simple yet difficult subject to execute. The debutant has partially succeeded in his endeavour. The missing consistency in maintaining a consistent and unified tone for the film is the biggest undoing of the debutant.
The film begins alright in an engaging manner, but soon the character of Dev starts to unnerve the audience. The forceful way with which it goes about its ideals and the melodramatic justification given to it by solving friend’s problems doesn’t really energise the proceedings or make one engaged in the narrative.
The movie gets on track with the introduction of love angle, a shift in the tone. Finally, there is some momentum to the proceedings, and the genuine chemistry shared between the lead pair Karthi and Rakul Preet Singh make everything look fine momentarily. But, just like their relationship which was ready to be shaken after a lively phase, the narrative too falls into the problematic zone. Which, by the way, again leads to a narrative jump in tone.
The character of Meghana is not properly etched. It feels repetitive after a point. The reason that made her chose the path is understood, but the decisions taken after a particular happening in the second half that leads to the third act makes her part unbelievable. There is an instant disconnect, even though parts of it like the sequence where she is obsessed with spending time can be passed. It is what turn Meghana takes afterwards that becomes a jump the shark moment for Dev.
The whole climax episode, brilliantly shot otherwise, feels unnecessary due to the primary disconnect. And that situation arises due to forced emotional decisions and actions by the heroine.
On the whole, Dev works when it a pure romance between the two leads. It bores massively before and afterwards. It still might be okay for the Valentine Day weekend, but chances of its survival beyond that look slim.
Rakul Preet Singh and Others?
Rakul Preet Singh has got a tough part. She tries her best to be the tough looking boss of a company. The chemistry she has with Karthi is the highpoint of the movie, undoubtedly. However, it doesn’t end up becoming a memorable part due to poor character sketch overall. Amruta Srinivasan and RJ Vigneshkanth play the buddies of hero parts. They have done their none dramatic scenes well. Prakash Raj and Ramya Krishna, have decent supporting roles with a couple of crucial sequences each. The rest is blink and miss types.
Music and Other Departments?
Harris Jayaraj seems to exist in a time warp. His songs sound the same as they did a decade ago. A couple of them do feel nice, but the impact still is not the same as standalone audio. The cinematography is good. The editing could have been better. The writing is alright.
Highlights?
Lead Pair Chemistry
Two Songs
Karthi
Drawbacks?
Lack of Clarity Until The End
Boring Narration
Length
Alternative Take
A closure of emotions without the Himalayan track.
Did I Enjoy It?
In parts
Will You Recommend It?
With huge reservations
Dev Movie Review by Siddartha Toleti
