Yaaradi Nee Mohini!!

Spoiler Warning: Details of the storyline below

Vasu (Dhanush) is an easy-going youth, who is jobless. He's been searching for jobs for five years now, but hasn't been able to get one. He shares a rough relationship with his father (Raghuvaran) , who accuses him of being irresponsible, when Vasu demands money for buying a job application.

It is then that Vasu glimpses Keerthi (Nayanthara). Vasu is so forlorn and downcast, his application and his dress being just drenched by an outpour of slush thanks to a speeding car. People on the pavement look at him mockingly and pinch their nostrils due to his stench. It is at this point that Vasu gets a fleeting glance at Keerthi and it is love at first sight (so cliched!). Vasu chases Keerthi and dances around her for one whole song :) . The transition in Vasu's mood, from one of desparation and loss, to one of sudden love, is indeed shocking for the viewer.

Keerthi is employed as a manager in a software firm, and becomes an inspiration for Vasu to join the same firm. Vasu starts mugging... "Java is an OOP" :D , and then goes on to get a job at the same firm!! (with some generous help from Keerthi herself!)

Deserving special mention is a particular scene which would make us software engineers feel as fools and cause great offense indeed. Vasu manages to crash an entire lab (by hitting one key!) and then stays up all night to rectify the bug, managing to make the deadline, all for Keerthi's sake!! Only when the monitor pops up a message saying 'Code Activated', does everyone heave a sigh of relief! My God, where could this possibly happen?

Vasu and Keerthi, with a couple of others are chosen for a project at Australia. Vasu expresses his love, which Keerthi refuses citing her orthodoxy and her marriage that has been arranged at her hometown with her uncle's son.

Vasu's so depressed that he cries and reveals his tragedy to Raghuvaran. Raghuvaran, instead of consoling his son, setting him straight and being the responsible dad that he should be, runs straight to Keerthi and pleads on Vasu's behalf!! Predictably Keerthi becomes angry and bellows at him. Enter Vasu, and without showing an iota of respect a manager deserves, abuses her. This is probably the ugliest and the most ill-orchestrated scene in the movie. Who would argue about love publicly in a plush software firm?? Keerthi slaps (accidentally?) both Vasu and Raghuvaran.

Raghuvaran drinks and expires that very night while sleeping from a heart attack. The late Raghuvaran's skill and experience enables him to craft his role very well indeed. The father-son relationship does indeed form a poignant aspect of this movie.

To protect Vasu from depression, his friend Cheenu (Karthik) takes him along to his native village; Vasu learns that Keerthi is the girl that Cheenu is slated to marry.

Second half

The second half is what props up the movie, and salvages it from being a pointless exercise. Cheenu and Keerthi's families are Brahmin families living together, and their mannerisms, which are completely alien to Vasu, evoke genuine laughter.

Keerthi's younger sister (?) flirts with Vasu and develops a crush on him. Her role as a young, starry-eyed teenage girl is humorous and enjoyable.

A series of incidents showing off Vasu's heroics, his supposed innocence, and his presence of mind in saving Keerthi's sister results in Keerthi falling for Vasu this time around (with just a couple of days to go for her arranged marriage :-) ).

How Vasu manages to win the head of the family's approval and marries Keerthi is the crux of the climax.

What was Cheenu's fate, you may ask. Well, as usual, he's the sacrificial lamb, this time too. I do wonder why he chooses such roles involving huge sacrifices :-) . (Remember Kanda Naal Mudhal, where he played a similar role?)