If Adhik Ravichandran makes enough money from his labour of love AAA, he should consider investing in a good, long holiday, and perhaps observe the real world and speak to some real women. He should also consider never making a film again, especially a Part 2 of this insufferable one.
Clearly, looking at his track record, the man has deep rooted issues about anything to do with women - perhaps some girl snubbed him in school when he asked her to share her appalam?
AAA is a creepy, weird mix of STR films with TR body language, and a Lolita premise. It's true that Ramya (Tamannah) is 26 years old and not a child, but she's mentally only 8, like every other Tamil heroine; in one scene, when she almost kisses Ashwin Thaatha, she's wearing a dress with a giant Mickey Mouse on it. I'm not making this stuff up, I swear.
It's hard not to cringe as 55-year-old Ashwin Thaatha (a stuffy Simbu with salt and pepper hair) lusts after her, and actually thinks she's "cheated" him by being completely oblivious to his desires. Methinks Ramya would have been oblivious if a green alien had landed in a spaceship right in front of her, so really, Ashwin Thaatha, you gotta be more forgiving, man.
The film is a lesson for anyone who wants to learn the meaning of the word 'irony'. One moment we have the female staff of Ashwin Thaatha's house complaining about how his friend, played by VTV Ganesh (who else?) sexually harasses every fair-skinned woman who joins work, and the next moment, VTV Ganesh is outraging about an "innocent" girl who gets raped by a villain from Ashwin Thaatha's past.
We see Ashwin Thaatha's younger version Michael feeling up Selvi (Shriya Saran), trying to catch her when she's undressing, even tying a thaali around her neck without her consent - but when some fellows with bad hairdos whack Ramya on her back, Ashwin Thaatha delivers a speech on "pasanga" needing to keep their hands to themselves. Seriously.
At some point, I stopped listening to Simbu's lengthy "sirappu" speeches on what women should do and shouldn't do (run an old age home instead of drinking, for instance), only waking up when the lady next to me exclaimed "saavuda" at a particularly misogynistic line that our hero threw at the audience.
GV Prakash, the poster boy for Tamil "culchur" since the jallikattu protests, joins the party with magnificent lines like, "Women cheat even young men like me, then should we ask about old men like you?" Aww. I'm sure there wasn't a dry eye in the audience.
Is AAA an adult comedy? No. There's nothing grown-up about this juvenile film, and there's nothing remotely comic about it either.
One of the most elaborate jokes in the film involves Y Gee Mahendra getting electric shocks and CPR from different men every time he touches the switchboard. And oh, Kasthuri makes a comeback playing an investigating officer with a terrible haircut, strange accent, and a punchline that goes: Tamil women are still dark because we didn't open our doors when the British knocked on it.
The much celebrated three roles of STR are nothing to write home about because the film is about nothing. It's simply Adhik Ravichandran having his revenge at that appalam girl from high school.
AAA is a loud, tacky "gentlemen" oriented film, so as a woman reviewer, I'd like to end by pasting this poster of a "lady oriented" film that had so much trouble at the CBFC.
