Hey Sinamika movie director: Brinda
Hey Sinamika movie cast: Dulquer Salmaan, Kajal Aggarwal, Aditi Rao Hydari, Shyam Prasad
Hey Sinamika movie rating: 2 stars
Hey Sinamika is the directorial debut of popular choreographer Brinda. Despite her extensive experience in the film industry, her movie is replete with rookie mistakes. It seems like her attempt to copy all the romantic movies made before hers, particularly the style of Mani Ratnam (OK Kanmani) and Gautham Menon (Vinnaithaandi Varuvaayaa). With hardly any novelty or heart, the film feels more like a mishmash than a wholesome romance. What’s more important is that this is a film we have already watched many times before.
The movie opens with the hero sitting at a coffee shop located at the beachside. The ocean breeze seems stronger than usual as the heroine walks in with her hair blowing in the wind. They look at each other and are transfixed. Love at fight sight, indeed. There is a beautiful line from Kambaramayanam, ‘Annalum nokkinaan Avalum nokkinaal’, which talks about the first sight of eternal love. Unfortunately, the scene is not half as poetic as the underlying emotions need it to be. As a matter of fact, it couldn’t be more cold and visually conventional. The shot was so unimaginative that I wondered whether it was Brinda’s way of ridiculing the romantic stereotypes in Tamil cinema. Alas, that wasn’t the case.
The film’s central theme deals with two women fighting for the same man, which is something all Tamil TV serials have flirted with over the years.
Watch Hey Sinamika trailer:
Yaazhan (Dulquer Salmaan) plays a man secure in his skin. He doesn’t have any qualms about taking care of household chores as his highly-paid wife Mouna (Aditi Rao Hydari) takes care of the bills. In one scene, Yaazhan is comfortable going to a wedding in his wife’s dress and holding her handbag. He is shown as an evolved species that feels no need to resort to violence, dominance or other masculine tropes to prove his worth as a man. He seems like a catch, no? But Mouna would vehemently disagree with that observation. So much so that she wants to end their marriage. She claims she is tired of Yaazhan’s clinginess and need to share, and cannot fill the void of a companion in his life anymore. And she is right. It does feel a bit too much when your partner tries to feed you cake while you are in the shower. Yaazhan may be well-read but that doesn’t mean he’s flawless. And that should have been the focus of this movie — Yaazhan understanding how his clinginess is affecting Mouna, and Mouna having a conversation like an adult with him, instead of hiring a temptress to seduce away her husband.
Sadly, this film is bent on painting Yaazhan as a perfect man, while Mouna is shown as a fool for not appreciating his love unconditionally. This film squanders the opportunity to be an intimate movie about relationships and the importance of maintaining a healthy space between couples. Instead, it settles on complaining: why all girls are like this only ya?