Selfie Movie Review

Filmmaker Vetrimaaran’s close relative Mathi Maran has directed ‘Selfie’ featuring GV Prakash, Gautham Vasudev Menon, and Varsha Bollamma in the lead roles. The film has a musical score by GV Prakash himself.

The story revolves around Kanal (GV Prakash), who is from a poor family background in the rural backdrops. His father (Vaagai Chandrasekhar) wants to see his son join engineering college, and lead a well-settled life with a good job and pay scale. On joining the college in Chennai, Kanal looks so much ignorant about his studies. He relentlessly kills his time shooting the breeze with his friends, boozing and chilling out. Yeah! There’s a ladylove in his life (Varsha Bollamma) as well. Kanal gets to know that he got admission to this college through a racketing team, and he aspires to pick the same to get settled in his life. Apparently, his life turns topsy-turvy when his close friend succumbs to his fate, and he crosses path with yet another bigwig in the admission racketing troupe (Gautham Vasudev Menon). Urged by situations, both of them have to work together, but then, life has its plans for them.

If you have been keenly looking into the social issues, and updated with the latest happening in society, you should have come across a youngster named Madhan, who got arrested for admission racketing a few years ago. Director Mathi Maaran has picked up this premise as the inspiration and has managed to present it. The first hour moves at the best pace. The entire team of technicians contributes a lot towards the first half, but in contrast, they lose their intensity in the second hour due to the predictable screenplay and sluggish narration.

When it comes to performances, GV Prakash befittingly looks good for his character as an engineering student. Gautham Vasudev Menon as Ravi Varman is excellent with his performance. For the very first time, we get to see him perform a role without those English cuss words. Varsha Bollamma has a very minimal role, yet she tries to give her best in her characterization.

Well, if you are knocked by the basic question about the title ‘Selfie’ and its relevance to the film’s premise, your puzzling state will never fade. However, it’s a decent attempt by the entire team. The film sneaks into an intense theme, and the message it conveys is quite commendable. However, much more efficient screenwriting would have made the experience of watching this movie phenomenal.