‘Kick’ movie review: Santhanam’s film is yawn-inducing and terrible

Kick, the latest Tamil film starring Santhanam, has its comedy sequences all over the place. It is not a memorable outing for Santhanam or any of its lead characters.

“Biriyani na piece irukanum, party na girls irukanum.” (If it’s biriyani, it should contain a piece. If it’s a party, there should be girls.)

With this supposedly amazing joke, this Santhanam starrer kicks off. And goes nowhere. For, in 124 minutes, this comedy takes many characters, puts them in unnecessary situations, and makes jokes about them that no one really cares about.

So, what’s Kick about?

It’s about the battle between two ad agencies, with a whole lot of characters going berserk with dialogue and dress. The protagonist is Santhosh (Santhanam), who is supposed to be an ad filmmaker who succeeds using devious means. This is peeving several other ad agencies that are vying for clients. Can the entry of Shivani (Tanya), an ad professional, change things around?

Kick is primarily about a case of Santhosh posing as someone he is not. But how, dear director, did you think that the image of Kovai Sarala wearing a wig, blingy clothes and screeching would elicit laughter? Or Thambi Ramiah dressed like a bandmaster and always dancing, thinking he’s Michael Jackson? And oh, there’s also Brahmanandam playing a scientist. He goes into a toilet and someone thinks he’s entering a time machine!

If the jokes in Kick are juvenile and yawn-inducing, the songs, especially their picturisation, and the action sequences are no different. Why do makers have to insert action sequences needlessly into what they think has great elements of comedy? Or even throw in elements of romance and song-dance sequences when they very well know that the hero’s USP is funny one-liners?

Santhanam, in his avatar as hero, has been selecting some decent subjects. If Gulu Guluwas an experiment, his last film – DD Returns – is said to have done well at the box office. But in this path that he has taken, Santhanam has also picked up some ridiculous comedies that have no value in them. Like his latest film, Kick, in which he makes advertisements, some of which are better than the film itself.