The title is inspired by the song Hey Sinamika… from Maniratnam’s hit film – OK Kanmani which incidentally also had Dulquer Salman as the male lead as this one. Now, if you think the inspirations from Mani’s films ended here, sorry you are wrong. The film is littered with references from earlier films of Mani.
Apart from Dulquer, one of the female leads in this film – Aditi Rao Hydari has also featured in not one but, two of Mani’s films (Kaatru Veliyidai & Chekka Chivantha Vaanam). Like in Mani’s Dil Se, the hero and heroine meet for the 1st time in the midst of Nature’s fury. Aditi is a Paleotempestologist which needed googling to understand what that meant, just like Arvind Swamy’s profession – Cryptologist in Roja back then! One of Tamil cinema’s iconic dialogue – “En Pondati oorukku poita” from Mani’s Agni Natchathiram also finds a place in the film!
Dulquer alludes to Bharathiyar and his famous poem – Achamillai Achamillai which Arvind Swamy alluded in Thalapathy! In an important shot involving the two female leads – Aditi and Kajal Aggarwal, the camera continuously moves on a circular dolly track just like the “Om Namaha” song scene in Idayathai Thirudathe! And the overall look and feel of the film is an ode to some of Mani’s urban films. Why am I bringing up the references to Mani’s films here in this review? Well, there is nothing much to talk about in this film otherwise.
The story involves a couple (Dulquer and Aditi) who get married after the proverbial “love at first sight”. But soon the relationship gets awry mainly because Aditi gets fed up of Dulquer’s over niceness. She takes the help of a Psychologist (Kajal) to facilitate this separation by asking her to act like flirting with her husband. If you find the story so far bizarre, the rest of the plot is further bizarre.
The film is cute and pleasing to the eyes. Dulquer puts up an earnest performance as the earnest husband. For a mallu, his Tamil is flawless. In a scene in Kerala, he even speaks so well the broken Malayalam like how a Tamil who doesn’t know Malayalam will speak! Aditi and Kajal look gorgeous, dress well and beyond that the script doesn’t give them any scope. The music score of Govind Vasantha is nice. Pondicherry through the lens of cameraman Preetha Jayaraman is pretty.
This is Director Brinda’s debut film. Brinda who has been an ace choreographer in South India passes the test in terms of style. If only, Brinda who draws heavily from Maniratnam’s film universe in this film would have also worked on the story line and script, it would have been a wonderful debut for her. Hey Sinamika is a feel good, light, wannabe Maniratnam film which one can watch just for time pass.
AnandKumarRSonFilms 
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