Story
Jyothika is back on the Silver Screen after an eight year long hiatus. In a nut shell, "36 vayathinile" is all about the suppression that most middle class women face in this particularly male chauvinistic society and how women can be driving chain in chaining the society and the economy.
Just like how the trailer gives a hint of English Vinglish, I am of the personal opinion that the film crew did intend to make it look like one. There are striking similarities between the attire Sridevi wears and the ones that Jyothika wears. Not only that, from the simple make-up to plain jewellery, everything reminds us of Sridevi. Though the entire film crew, would have tried to project Jyothika to resemble the legendry actress Sridevi, Jyothika fails in every bit to leave an impact as Sridevi does.
Analysis :
Another major drawback of the movie is the Costume Design. There are scenes where Jyothika wears a cotton saree to work, but changes into a fancier saree for cooking once she gets back from office. There is also another scene where you can find Jyothika is clad in a silk saree while sleeping. Even the President of India's detail looked quite artificial.
The direction and screenplay is another major drawback for the film. The film is unbelievably short, less than 2 hours. The director conveniently makes the script easy and simple. The main fulcrum of the movie is "women empowerment", which is handled exactly in one song. There were instances in Indian cinema where the hero's become rich in just one song... for example, Rajnikanth becomes rich in Padayappa. That is acceptable in Padayappa because, becoming rich is not the main story in Padayappa. But, in this film Women Empowerment and how Jyothika succeeds in achieivng it is the main story and the director conveniently avoids handling that complex and tough part and restricts that to just one song. Would you enjoy English Vinglish if Sridevi learnt English in just one song ?
Though there could be many flaws in the movie, the technical side has given its best. The sound mixing and re-recording was near to perfection. The surround mixing was something that you would expect from an action movie. The centre channel was loud and clear. A lot of attention was paid to remixing and this can be understood in the Airport announcement scenes and during Jyothika's speech ( you can hear the flash noise perfectly). The camera work was also good. It had good framing and perfect capture of the colours.
Performance :
Jyothika could be the biggest plus for the movie, but unfortunately a lot of flaws in the movie can be associated to her. Once the movie starts, in 15 minutes into the film, you feel that there is something wrong with the voice and the expression and then you slowly realise that Jyothika still does not dub for her roles ; and your feel becomes all the more stronger when you start spotting lip sync failures.
Another major flaw is that, you find Jyothika over expressing in the first half. The expressions on her face are too artificial - something on the lines of a nursery teacher over expressing a rhyme to the kindergarten students so that they understand more from the actions rather from the wordings.
Another major flaw is that, Jyothika does not look her age. It is true that most films demand that their heroines must look younger than their real age. But, certain films demand an older look.
As the title suggests, the movie is about a 36 year old women, but Jyothika looks 25 ! She has toned her body so well for this movie that she actually looks younger than what she is.
In fact the movie proves this perfectly. Though predominantly, she is 36 year old married women in the film, there are a few frames in the second half which show a 14 year old flash back... so do the math... 36 minus 14 is 22... and there again, she looks exactly the same... It is like watching "Indian" film where the Kamal Hassan looks the same as a freedom fighter and as grand old man... Sounds stupid and illogical right ? Well this movie has loads of them.
Final Word:
"36 Vayathinile" is a good film but lacks the fine touch.
(AW: Umesh Rao K)