Mr Chandramouli movie review: Gautham Karthik, Regina Cassandra can't save this formulaic, insipid entertainer

The USP of Mr Chandramouli is that veteran actor Karthik and his son Gautham Karthik come together on screen for the first time. Karthik is known for his romantic films (from the ’80s and ’90s) laced with comedy, and him teaming up with the hot and happening Gautham Karthik, was supposed to be a casting coup. However director Thiru’s formulaic and insipid script isn’t exciting enough. The film has a starting problem, just like the old Fiat Padmini car  used by Karthik in the story. In the first half of the film, there is hardly anything happening other than character introductions, comedy and romantic scenes, and few songs. It is the second half in the last 30 minutes that the film takes off. There are some twists and turns and a terrific climax scene with the hero taking on the bad guy using a spy cam and a rear view mirror. [caption id=“attachment_4661681” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  A still from Mr Chandramouli.[/caption] Raghav (Gautham Karthik) is a boxer who makes a living out of sponsorship of his boxing matches. He and his loving, carefree dad Chandramouli (Karthik) live a happy life with father cooking Dosas for his son. The father is very attached to his old Fiat Padmini car, which has a starting problem. In a way, the car plays a role in Raghav and Madhu (Regina Cassandra)’s meet-cute. Madhu works as an app-developer in an IT firm. It is love at first sight for Raghav, who gets smitten by her after the usual ‘stalking love’ encounter (a Kollywood speciality). Soon Madhu also flips for him, after an underwater dream song on Krabi beach in Thailand. On a parallel story line, there is a rivalry between two top call-taxi operators in the city – Azhgar (Mahendran) and Vinayak (Santhosh Prathap), who also sponsor the boxing matches of Raghav. Azhagar is the arrogant market leader in Call Taxi business, while Vinayak wants to be the new number one. All of a sudden, a series of crimes, including murder, takes place in cabs operated by Vinayak, and the image of the company is in tatters. The father and son are sucked into the corporate warfare between the two rival cab companies leading to a terrible “accident”, which leaves the father dead. Post interval Raghav does his own investigation and he finds that the ‘accident’ was a planned murder. There is also a sub–plot of his father’s ‘friendship’ with Bhairavi (Varalakshmi), who works in Azhagar’s office. Now, Raghav wants to take revenge on his father’s killer, with help of his girl friend Madhu. The film has peppy music by Sam C, especially ‘Yadhedo’ and ‘Raajadhi Raja’ shot beautifully by Richard Nathan. The climax action scene between the hero and villain is superbly choreographed and Gautham Karthik shines. Mr.Chandramouli is packaged as a typical formulaic entertainer, rampant in the 1990s, for which still there is an audience in small towns and rural areas in Tamil Nadu.