"JOE" A feel good romantic movie
My review for the Tamil Film "JOE"
Director Hariharan Ram gave clean depiction of college romance, egoistic fights among lovers, and the attitudes youngsters who became partners in an unwilling marriage, by narrating the romance of a young man who is in love with his college mate how ends in heartbreak. Finding romance after suffering heartbreak with first love isn't a fresh trope in Tamil Cinema, here director attempts recite a romantic tale in a sensible and engaging manner without the feeling of recurrence.
The plot revolves around Joe (Rio Raj) who falls in love with his classmate Sujithra (Malavika Manoj), in college. Even though the Malayali girl reciprocates, the romance is doomed, eventually, Joe marries Shruti (Bhavya Trikha), a strong-willed woman, who isn't ready to accept him as her husband because of the shudder from her own past.
First half of the film is filled with love and friendship scenes, the scenes adjacent to the break and the emotional scenes director made it have a relevant impact. The mental struggle of the couples (both have a previous history of love failure) who cohabit in a late involuntary marriage is displayed in maturity with both their feelings and justifications equally important. After Rio Raj, the hero survives a suicide attempt, the verses in which his father and mother speak to him separately are hooked as a gripping message against suicidal moods of youngsters. As the film gets serious, the occasional natural humour lightens the mood of the audience while the portrayal of female characters and their feelings have been handled with dignity is really praiseworthy.
Rio Raj is perfect for all ages-School student, college youth, and married. He has done an incredible job in emotional scenes. How do the couple rediscover happiness, director Hariharan Ram narrates this tale with earnestness, audience to have they-must-get-together feeling, supported with Siddu Kumar's background score to do the heavy lifting. Even though there is a slight lagging in the second half, the director manages to get the audience engaged with scenes that register quite strongly, like the scene where Joe's mother talks emotionally about her love at first sight.
If there's one word that can be apt to define Rio Raj, it's decent, for a film involving college life and youth, a very mindful film that attracts the youngsters, highly appreciable aspect is, it treats its female characters with respect, and even when its protagonist uses verbal abuse, he's quickly corrected by his mother, hats off to the director to capture the love scenes without any vulgarity, aptly suitable for the entire family to watch the film with a never expected twist at the end.
The screenplay is packed with the necessary lively and emotional moments and the iconic ideas that make you smile, a story that we are all familiar with and is based on a love story that has happened in some form in all of our lives. The first half starts off with a bit of fun and ends with a heartwarming interlude. The second half of the film starts off with new life-filled scenes and the film goes on a very positive course, a fulfilling feel good movie with an unexpected twist at the end. The climax scene, which is particularly unexpected for anyone, is the biggest strength of the film to shore up the film with audience. Though it is a romantic film that we have already seen many times, the visuals and screenplay structure are brushed and reinforced by the music of the film, giving a perfect blend of emotions wherever you want to laugh, wherever you want to cry, wherever you want to be moved, giving the feeling of having seen a full-length family movie.
This film gave us a positive feeling that a help that we have done in the course of our life and later when we are at the wits end, that help turns our life upside down and makes us travel in a different direction and that life becomes our favourite model.
Finally, special mention to the Director who casts, a homely new actress from Kerala, Malavika Manoj with her innocent mannerisms who captured the attention of the audience, an unconventional performance, expressing her emotions in superb manner for any scenes she appears. Malavika is the perfect choice for the heroine who came to Coimbatore to study from Kerala, her clear acting, beautiful dialogues and elegance facial expression have lifted the character, which is a huge plus to add edge to the film, ensuring a potential girl to reign the Tamil films in the near future.
In short, the Film Joe is must watch movie to be seen with family at theatre.
Review by M. Siraj.
