Plan Panni Pannanum movie review: This supposedly funny film, starring Rio Raj, is engaging in parts

2.5/5

Story: Two Chennai-based IT employees, along with an ambitious girl, go to Kodaikanal to search one of their sisters who eloped with an unknown person. Upon reaching the hill station, the duo understands that it is almost impossible to separate the eloped couple. Later, their lives witness a few twists and turns after they bump into a few relatives of the girl with whom they travelled all the way to Kodaikanal.

Review: The advantage of watching a no-brainer is that you can enjoy the sequences in it in a laid-back manner. However, the entertainment quotient, needless to say, should be very high to keep the viewers engaged. Badri Venkatesh's Plan Panni Pannanum, which has been lying in the cans for sometime, belongs to the aforementioned category.

The film has a few impressive comedians in its cast apart from a couple of artists who have carved a niche for themselves as strong performers over the years. It also has an okayish plot which appears to be satisfactory for a no-brainer to entertain the audience. But are these factors really adequate enough to keep the viewers hooked?

The story begins with Sembiyan (Rio Raj) and Raju (Balasaravanan), two IT employees who set out to rope in a small-time actress to dance for a special event at their office. They manage to convince an actress (Anaika Soti plays herself) for the same and pay advance for it. 

Meanwhile, Raju's sister elopes with her boyfriend even as the two are chased by the actress' manager to pay the pending amount. They find that it is Aambal (Ramya Nambeesan) who helped Raju's sister to elope. Upon realizing that the eloped couple is in Kodaikanal, the trio go to the hill station along with Manmadhan (Robo Shankar), who has been friendzoned by Aambal.

Little did Sembiyan and Raju know that Aambal had other plans in mind while taking them to Kodaikanal. The duo get to meet Aambal's parents after which the course of the story changes. What happens to Raju's sister and her boyfriend? What was in Aambal's mind when she accompanied the two friends to Kodaikanal? 

With the likes of Rio Raj, Balasaravanan, Munishkanth, Robo Shankar and Thangadurai on board, one expects decent number of comic sequences in the film, and they partly succeed in entertaining the audience, thanks to some of the episodes in the first half. The scene involving Rio, Bala and Thangadurai making a TikTok video is hilarious because of the way it is presented.

The chemistry between Rio and Bala is one of the positive aspects of the movie, and the latter is a scream in a few sequences, thanks to his one-liners, funny expressions and body language. As an aspiring actor, Thangadurai, too, scores in a few scenes with his helplessness.

However, the lead actors didn't rise up to the expectations as their characters aren't written intriguingly. We aren't able to empathize with their feelings and incapabilities after the story takes a serious turn in the latter half. The romantic angle involving Rio and Ramya feels forced and leaves no impact. Though Munishkanth's antics are enjoyable in the beginning, it becomes repetitive as the story progresses. Robo Shankar's performance hardly leaves any impact.

The sub plot involving a tiff between the characters essayed by Aadukalam Naren and Marimuthu falls flat. The story goes directionless after a point and becomes predictable towards the end. The background score and a couple of songs composed by Yuvan Shankar Raja keep us entertained. The movie with a wafer-thin plot doesn't seem to take itself seriously which is fine. But some of the comic sequences failing to evoke laughter and a slew of melodramatic episodes going haywire leave us disconnected after a point.

Verdict: Despite having talented actors on board and a not-so-bad plot, the movie falters because of the partly unengaging screenplay.