‘Perusu’ movie review: ‘Stand-up comedy’ gets a new definition in Vaibhav’s mindless entertainer

A still from ‘Perusu’ 
| Photo Credit: Special Arrangement

A bit of googling tells how terminal erection or death erection is an actual condition that’s very much as shocking as it sounds. It is also the core idea behind director Ilango Ram’s Perusu, the remake of the director’s Sinhala-language comedy-drama Tentigo, which bagged multiple accolades.

In Perusu, Halasyam, a much-revered elderly person, dies unexpectedly. But his sons Samikannu (Sunil) and Duraikannu (Vaibhav) barely have the time or space to mourn as their father’s corpse, instead of developing rigor mortis where the muscles stiffen, gets a rigor erectus, causing the dead person to have an erection — or priapism as it’s technically called in which a penis remains erect for hours. As the family — which includes the heirs’ wives Shanthi (Niharika) and Nila (Chandini Tamilarasan), Halasyam’s wife (Nakkalites Dhanam) and her sister (Deepa Shankar) — believes this to be a travesty that the villagers and relatives cannot get a whiff of, they try everything in their power to um… bring things under control.

This simple but intriguing plot is a perfect canvas for a slew of jokes and comical moments, and Perusu laps it up brilliantly. The double entendre is expectedly aplenty, and even when the jokes around the dead person’s condition overstay their welcome, it’s the hilarious one-liners and Crazy Mohan-style wordplays that save the day. The film’s title itself goes from meaning a head honcho of a town to something else once Halasyam dies. From him being a carpenter and innuendoes ranging from a cricket bat to TMT bars, the film goes hard with its share of d*** jokes. Perusu might be a one-trick pony, but, similar to Bruce Lee’s famous quote, it’s a trick that the film has perfected, and it works almost all the time Perusu banks on it.

Perusu does a decent job of navigating over a wafer-thin plot, and when the initial novelty wears off, we get a slew of secondary characters to bring in more knots to unravel. There’s the young chap who Halasyam would have earlier slapped for apparently ogling at women; there’s also Durai’s trust friend Ameen (Bala Saravanan), Sami’s schoolmate and auto driver Sathish (Redin Kingsley), the nosey neighbour (Rama) and the overtly suspicious uncle (Munishkanth). Out of this lot, it’s Bala Saravanan who stands apart in a role as good as the one he recently did in Lubber Pandhu.

Speaking of performances, it’s Vaibhav and Sunil, as the half-drunk younger brother and not-responsible-by-choice older brother, do a brilliant job. After a minor role in Ranam Aram Thavarel, it’s delightful to watch the real-life brothers carry a film together completely. There’s a wonderful scene at the back of a stationary car where the brothers talk about each other’s dynamic or the lack thereof they had with their father. After a minor role in the recent Suzhal 2, it’s nice to see Chandini in a pivotal role, and Niharika, though acing the acting portions, feels out of place with her accent. A throwaway line, seemingly as an explanation to that, is clearly an afterthought on the dubbing studio. It’s actually Nakkalites Dhanam and Deepa Shankar who almost steal the show if not for their limited screen time.

A still from ‘Perusu’ 
| Photo Credit:
Special Arrangement

Probably my only gripe with Perusu is how the film keeps going for — pardon the pun — the low-hanging fruits. The film prefers hitting you with a certain number of laugh-worthy moments a minute instead of coupling the humour and drama to give us a more effective end product. For example, when a shaman (played by the film’s producer Kaarthekeyen Santhanam) and a doctor (VTV Ganesh) populate a scene, you would probably expect a science vs religion aspect of dealing with the situation. But the film, once again, opts for something slapstick.

What becomes unintentionally funny is how the makers — probably thanks to the censor board — have to add a few pixelated frames over the dead body’s you-know-what whenever it comes up on the screen. For a film on such a theme with a small dose of topics like extra-marital affairs and Viagra medication, Perusu maintains its streak of clean humour throughout its runtime. It even makes you wonder if it can be called a family-friendly film. Speaking of dilemma, at a time when there’s a slew of films highlighting how a family’s honour is not the responsibility of its women or their sexuality, I’m unsure if Perusu’s central idea of the family going to lengths to hide something natural in the name of saving their integrity warrants a notice. But Ilango Ram, with his superbly written screenplay, lets you go past these minor flaws and certain flat aspects of the film even if the climax stretch, with its comedy of errors and the ‘other woman’ trope, reminds you of Santhanam’s A1.

Perusu, with its simple but effective premise, is a mindless entertainer that works despite certain limitations. At a time when Tamil cinema is meddling more with action flicks and thrillers, Perusu has it all to satiate those who want to laugh out loud and lose track of the number of times you did it. Speaking of action films, if Perusu ever gets made in English, I wonder if the title Die Hard would be up for grabs!

Perusu is currently running in theatres