Tamil cinema has put forward many campus stories. College Romance? We’ve seen it. Hostel experience? O also.
Reminiscing about college life? Bah, been there, done that.
This ‘what happens after coming to college’ has been chronicled in several on-screen episodes. selfieThe latest Mathieu Maran directorial film ‘How do we enter college’ starring GV Prakash and Gautham Menon chooses to explore the phases.
Kanal (GV Prakash) from a small town wants to get into business but his father has only one goal: to see his son as an engineer. He spends a lot of money to get Kanal a seat in a prestigious college in Chennai, even pledging some of his wife’s jewellery. What happens when Kanal learns that the money paid for his seat was actually due to the many middlemen and agents involved in the process?
selfie
Cast: GV Prakash, Gautham Menon, Varsha Bolamma
Director: Mathi Marani
Story: An angry engineering student trapped in a college admission scam!
And so, sensing a lot of money in it, he himself becomes an agent. What happens when he crosses paths with Ravi Varma (Gautam Menon), whose word is the last for all involved in the business of education?
As a theme idea, selfie Discusses a topic that rarely comes in the public eye, let alone films. Mathi Maran deserves credit for not only taking it on but also keeping the screenplay as lively as possible so that the audience’s interest is not lost. However, he misses out on a few things, most notably because of the “filmy first half”, which has a romance that has no place here, and performances that don’t always hit the right note.
GV Prakash fits as an angry young college going youngster, but Gautham Menon’s casting feels like a wrong move. He looks out of place in unfamiliar surroundings, and tries to shield him from the ‘local’ sound, which doesn’t work most of the time. Vagai Chandrashekhar scores as GV Prakash’s father, but the romance between the leads is also terrific, with Varsha Bolma’s dubbing out of sync.
For a film like this to click, the face-to-face confrontations between the male protagonists need more depth. The climax also comes across as a hasty act rather than an elaborate one. This selfie More attention is needed.