Definitely Not Your Golden Dream.

Television anchor Gopinath, once remarked that Gautham Vasudev Menon was one director who had the fanfare that paralleled a mass hero. A rather honest remark, considering his wonderful contribution to Tamil Cinema, with films like Kakkha Kakkha, Vettayaadu Vilayaadu, Vaaranam Aayiram, Vinnaithaandi Varuvaya, and even the infamous Nadunisi Naaygal, that put him at a position of high esteem. And thus, in his dream-come-true collaboration with the Isaignani Ilayaraaja, he brings to us Neethane En Ponvasantham, starring Jiiva, Samantha, Santhanam, and several others.

NEP, (as the movie's teasers, and the opening slide emphasize very well) are "moments" from the love story of Varun and Nithya. A cute, sensitive girl falls head-over-heels for a childhood friend, a handsome, mature-acting, Ilayaraaja-loving, English-speaking guy - Your typical Gautham hero. (But yeah, Surya from VA was a bit immature, running off to countries with his guitar, but we still found that good.) They get together, things go awry, they split. And after some years, they meet again, and rekindle their love. And again, things go even more awry, they split. And after some(read: 3) years, they meet again, but a clash of their egos ends in them not getting together - while a mental tug-of-war plays within both their heads. Do they finally join, and live happily ever after, or not, forms the rest of NEP.

Perhaps the only positive aspect of this film is Santhanam, who manages to keep us smiling whenever he's on screen, which is, unfortunately, for a short period of time. The legendary Ilayaraaja, has pulled out an album which, though decent, is not Maestro-class enough, but the exceptionally haphazard placement of songs during the movie's runtime, have made listening a rather irksome process.

NEP, goes on forever. Literally. The screenplay of the film, is snail-pace, only to quicken up during the climax. Everything goes to and fro, to and fro, for such a long time, that it really tests the patience of the audience. The cinematography is haywire, not exactly impressive. The actors, of course, perform their best. While Jiiva is neat with his subtle playing, the movie actually revolves around Samatha, who delivers a worthy performance. 

A weak script, a drag of a screenplay - it is shocking that Gautham Menon delivers this disappointment. Another downer, is the similarity of nature between every Menon romance film, and the ideological repetition has perhaps reached its tolerable limit. No train scene this time, but yeah, hero singing Ilayaraaja (voiced by Menon himself, as usual), night rides to forget his love life, retracing the past of love life by visiting romance hangouts, we've seen that quite a few times from him now.

And thus, this gooey loves story might win the hearts of diehard romantics, but other than that, it miserably fails to live up to its expectations.

Aditya Baskaran