Mookuthi Amman

Nayanthara does nothing but walk around in Lalitha Jewelery and Saravana Stores Sarees.

RJ Balaji does his usual bit about being the angry young man. He acts well and is funny at times (His Dialouge where he talks of Ammans objectives of Reforms in India - had me in splits). His emotions, His Suppressed Anger are all excellent for comic relief.

The Baba Actor is the usual caricature mixture of Nithyananda and Ramdev. It is Urvashi who steals the show. Her emotions, her comedy is flawless. Simply flawless. As a mother desperate to save face from embarrassment who resorts to lying all the time - she is perfect and her sorrows when finally, being confronted by her son is also priceless to watch.

One questions remain why was the fun targeted at Hindu Rituals or babas? Others??

Nayanthara is the best option and her next-door-girl-like-God role is perfectly fitting her. Oorvasi's acting needless to say yet have to be mentioned throughout the movie especially in 2 places. But we can enjoy her character throughout the movie. Qudos to RJ Balaji's acting and directing this movie as a God movie is outstanding. The movie was treated as a wholesome entertainer. The God scenes created goosebumps really after a long time. BGM is one of its cause. There were physically many people present in the shots, being a beginner director, it's nice that he could handle this much crowd in the movie. Voice sync was less with the girls. Overall, it would have been a treat if seen in cinemas.

Mookuthi Amman starts off with an alluring promise. Over 43 km of land is being bought by a so-called swami, much like Osho did in the US back in the 1970s. RJ Balaji plays a reporter named Engels (named after yes, Engels, co-writer of the Communist Manifesto). At this point, I thought we were off to a great start. Balaji's going to tackle both religion and snidely attack political ideologies. But, that's not where the rest of the movie goes.

From the minute, the titular Mookuthi Amman arrives onscreen, the whole movie witnesses a tonal shift. Till the end, I never knew if they were still doing this with satire on their minds. By they and their, I refer to the makers. Whatever the case may be, I was not pleased with the post-production. The dubbing and lip-sync is terrible in a lot of places. Balaji's over-the-top comic-riddled performance didn't help either.

There are some interesting things to talk about but the question remains "is the movie any good?" The answer, after a lot of hesitation, is no. Mookuthi Amman is largely a misfire. I assume this was because of a lack of focus. With LKG, they seemed to have a script that knew what it was talking about. Here, it feels like a hotchpotch of many ideas stuffed into a piggy bank made out of clay.

A refreshing take on devotional comedy. God knows we've had to live through bad VFX with the goddesses performing paltry magic tricks, insanely loud laughter and pet snakes popping out of nowhere. Glad Tamil Nadu is catching on with the trend of OMG in Bollywood. The movie is highly relatable to urban and rural audience in one neat little package. Every RJ Balaji dialogue in the movie reflects the candor and naiveite of a common man. Urvashi killed it with her quick wit and uncanny performance. The sister asking for a day's leave would resonate with every household. Finally, the god herself, Nayanthara's expressions with the BGM would put all heroes of TN out of business. The subtle hit on Christian missionaries in the name of schools, hospitals and prayer centers could have been more of a loud bang. Overall, the movie does not have one dull moment. Hope Kollywood dishes out movies like this for festivals like Diwali and Pongal rather than stereotypical hero worship movies.

Urvashi mam. Ohhhh what an acting. She acted in two extremes for soorari pottru and mookuthi amman.