Readers Write In #784: Perusu – An Adult Comedy that is not a ‘hard’ watch!

By Bharath Vijayakumar

In Ilango Ram’s Perusu, a family that needs to grieve is caught up with a ‘Big’ problem. Or should I say, a ‘small’ problem? Or should I rather say that what should be small, is actually big, and that is the problem? Whatever, but the crux is that the family tries to hide this ‘whatever’ and the resulting laughs is what Perusu is about. Adult comedies are a rarity in Tamil cinema, and even the few that we have had in between have mostly been tasteless sex comedies that had very little to write home about. Contrastingly, Perusu has a solid idea for an adult comedy and tries to set events around this idea. Almost everything in the film is tied to a ‘standing’ joke.

An elderly man passes away and the song running on TV is ‘Vanithaamani’. Given the premise of the film, I thought this was some foreshadowing regarding a certain ‘bell'(mani), but this song comes up much later in the film, and you realize that it was foreshadowing something else. Looking at it another way, the premise of Perusu can also be seen as, ‘Who is going to bell the cat?’ or rather, ‘Who is going to bell the bell?’ and the answer finally comes in the form of Vanithaamani who achieves this. For those of you who have seen the film, ‘Does this ring a bell?’.

The setup and the initial scenes evoke a good amount of laughter, and the acting is sufficiently good. And since almost all the jokes are based on a single ‘point’, the laughs do dry up at times but even then, the film never really tests your patience. It has your ‘attention’. There is something around the corner that keeps evoking at least a chuckle or two. The film is never a ‘hard’ watch. And it is a pleasant surprise to have female characters who remain integral to the plot, and they keep contributing to the jokes. The tasteless sex comedies that I had earlier referred to, had the female actors solely for being objectified. But in Perusu, they even have a go at the male characters in the film, and the jokes are at the cost of these males. I did find few things a bit problematic though. Something is revealed in the post credit scene that could be non-consensual and leaning towards non physical harassment. The film kind of keeps celebrating someone who probably led a promiscuous life and the male characters in the film keep aspiring to lead such a life. It is well and good as long as everything is consensual but what about the female characters? Can they aspire the same too? Maybe they can’t say it out loud, but the film doesn’t go there. In all fairness, the film probably never intentionally tries to do this but come to think of it, it may actually be reinforcing the idea that this kind of celebratory lifestyle is reserved for the males.

This adult comedy doesn’t always hit the right ‘spot’, but it always keeps trying. The film could have been shorter but given that the plot itself is about not keeping it short, not sure if I can complain about the length!