Perazhagi ISO movie review: A sci-fi with a comedy twist
Director: Vijayan
Cast: Shilpa Manjunath, Sachchu, Livingston
Perazhagi ISO revolves around the idea of what happens when a 60-year-old granny turns in to a 20 plus beautiful girl and its repercussions.
The movie begins with the prelude of the story of a king who wants to retain his youth and live eternally young. He commands his physicians (vaidhiyars) to discover a concoction accordingly. However, when they find one, the king’s enemies dethrone and kill him. They also throw the ‘secret formula’ in the sea. Fast-forward 450 years later, the formula lands in the hands of a greedy corporate honcho (Saravana Subbaiah) in the beauty products business and he wants to make big bucks out of it. He kidnaps old women and uses them as guinea pigs to test the formula at his lab.
Meanwhile, there is this happy family comprising of college going Keerthana (Shilpa Manjunath), her father (Livingston) and her grandmother Mohanambal (Sachchu). Mohana is fond of keeping herself trim and young with trendy clothes and make up. She also attends beauty pageants. However, Mohana accidentally gets into the hands of the business organization researching on the process of age reversing. After few days, she comes out of the lab as a young and pretty looking girl (Shilpa Manjunath again) and christens herself as Meghna. The rest is all about the comedy galatta that takes place thereafter.
Shilpa in a dual role in her early stage of career has given a solid performance. She shines every bit be it the normal Keerthana or the granny inside Meghna. Vivekh as her lover gives an adequate performance. Kudos to veteran Sachchu who brings her experience to the fore and puts up a great show. Her comic timing is amazing and brings smiles whenever she appears on screen. The rest including Livingston, Saravana Subbaiah and Delhi Ganesh chip in their bits.
The director has to be commended for taking a new storyline and executing it without much confusion. Though it was touted to be science fiction, the way it has been treated in a light hearted manner without many jargons and a crisp run time of 110 minutes makes it a delightful watch.