118. Single Shankarum Smartphone Simranum; movie review

 

SINGLE SHANKARUM SMARTPHONE SIMRANUM

Cert 12A

128 mins

BBFC advice: Contains infrequent strong language, discrimination

There is a decent comedy bursting to get out of Single Shankarum Smartphone Simarum but its keypad remains firmly locked.

Instead, Vignesh Sha's movie is an overstretched combination of repeated gags, misfiring romance and the most bizarre finale imaginable.

The film stars Sha Ra as a genius scientist who has invented a mobile phone with personality.

Inside is Simran (Megha Akash) who dedicates her life to fulfilling the every whim of her owner. Yes, a modern-day genie in the lamp.

Anyway, through foul means, the phone is taken from its creator's grasp and ends up in the hands of a fast-food delivery driver (Shiva).

The latter is a harmless fella with little ambition but the hots for a social media 'star' (Anju Kurian).

Initially, Simran grants his life wishes and his new-found status give him the confidence of pursuing the girl of his dreams.

The problem is that the genie has fallen for him and becomes jealous.

Sha's movie then degenerates into a series of supposedly comic misunderstandings with Shiva's character the innocent fool in the middle of them.

As said, the idea of 21st-century technology providing the backdrop for comedy is a sound one but the execution should be so much better than this.

Instead, it fails because of shallow, uninteresting slapstick men, pale-drawn women and an AI who is simply annoying.

Oh, and too many misfiring gags.

Reasons to watch: Easygoing comedy

Reasons to avoid: Too many misfiring gags

Laughs: A couple of chuckles

Jumps: None

Vomit: None

Nudity: None

Overall rating: 4/10

Did you know? Artificial Intelligence runs on all smartphones. Its neural networks help take better photos, understand different languages, identify music and assist with gaming. This is known as on-device AI.

The final word. Vignesh Sha: "Thanks for all your love and support for Single Shankarum Smartphone Simranum  I felt really happy to see everyone laughing and forgetting their sorrows for 2 hours !" Twitter

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