Star movie review: Kavin shines in this pursuit of sappiness

While the romance is reminiscent of Gautam’s Vinnai Thaandi Varuvaaya, the drama and the screenplay–or the lack of it–reminds one of director’s Vaaranam Aayiram. When Meera leaves Kalai’s life, he meets Surabhi (a horribly miscast Aaditi Pohankar) like Priya (Ramya) of Vaaranam Aayiram. There is even a laughable scene at the wedding of Meera, where she thanks Surabhi ostensibly for taking care of the hero. In return, Surabhi thanks Meera! The film is all about the protagonist and thankfully Kavin is an able actor who makes things interesting.

Star only wallows in the suffering of its lead character, who misses success by a whisker. The central idea of the film is about maintaining an unflinching optimism in the face of a catastrophe. However, we fail to see his nobility given Kalai is only driven by ambition, and is aiming for fame and stardom. He often comes across as a selfish, and at times unworthy of empathy.

He is named Kalai (Art), but he aspires to become a star on par with the reigning superstars of Tamil cinema, who are not often associated with the term. The only scene that explores the idea of art is when Kalai’s father talks about it being a tool to propagate great ideas. Even that’s limiting. Till the end, his drive to become a star is only depicted as a childhood fixation and left unexplored. Maybe in life dreams are irrational, but a film like Star, which has nothing going on other than the journey of its hero, has the onus of fleshing him out.

Elan is more interested in making us have those goosebumps. He often manipulates us to tear up; using Yuvan Shankar Raja’s old track at a particular moment is one such attempt. It was one of the well-done sequences in the film where Kalai lives on the streets of Mumbai, and understands what poverty truly means. It was just unfortunate that it didn’t have any great impact on the story or Kalai later. That’s the reason Star only twinkles and fails to shine bright–it’s more about the parts and less about the whole.

Star movie cast: Kavin, Aaditi Pohankar, Preity Mukhundhan and Geetha Kailasam

Star movie director: Elan

Star movie rating: 2.5 stars