Sruthi Ganapathy Raman
In Bommai, a mannequin artiste falls in love with one of his creations. How does one go from having such a plump one-liner and leave behind something frustratingly underwhelming?
A Tamil psychological thriller revolving around a mannequin artiste falling in love with his own doll, seems deliciously tailor-made for the actor. SJ Suryah is wonderful and weird in Bommai, but his character, like the film, isn’t quite either.
Bommai sits on remarkable potential and an even richer master plot. But what it does with it is frustratingly underwhelming for a story that ideally needed to be extremely over-the-top.
A sudden murder-mystery angle gives the film the much-needed pace, but also distracts. Radhamohan, who is known for his perceptive touch in sensitive human dramas, makes his presence visible through certain tacit shots.
It is also tangible through some smart wordplay. But for every such dialogue, we also get a line that ysees Raju compare Nandhini to his dead mother.
It also doesn’t help that Nandhini, for the most part, is treated as a doll even metaphorically. Raju tells us, as if she is a doll that he misplaced as a kid. An exploration of SJ Suryah’s deep metaphysical romance is perhaps reserved for yet another universe.