Jolly O Gymkhana
Avinash Ramachandran
Indian Express
Prabhudeva, Abhirami-lead ensemble shoulder this slightly funny but sloppy comedy
While director Sakthi Chidambaram asks us to not question the logic, it would have been better if more time was spent in structuring the narrative instead of throwing one random scene after another.
There has been a legitimate paucity of quality comedy films this year in Tamil cinema. So, when Sakthi Chidambaram, a veteran of this genre, even if his recent films were just a shadow of his form in the mid 2000s, closes the year with Jolly O Gymkhana, a comedy, it is okay to have your hopes up. But the filmmaker starts off by introducing Yogi Babu as Father Martin Luther King, and makes him walk out of the toilet and say lines like “Unakku life problem, enakku piles problem.” You think that is bad? It gets worse with him telling Madonna Sebastian’s Bhavani that he can’t help her sleeping problem because he is suffering from a sitting problem. You think that is worse? Bhavani, who narrates her backstory, says, “Kadhaiyoda moolathulerndhu kelunga (Listen to the story from the core)” and of course, Yogi Babu replies, “Already moolam dhaan ma prachana (My you-know-what is already sore).” And we are just five minutes into Jolly O Gymkhana.