Partner review: Hansika scores the brownie points in this light-hearted entertainer

Director Manoj Damodharan seems to have made his film Partner, a simple comedy, with the sole ambition of entertaining the masses.

The movie revolves around two friends — Sridhar (Aadhi Pinisetty) and Kalyan (Yogi Babu). It is a simple light-hearted entertainer, that doesn’t pay too much attention to logic and has no message whatsoever to offer audiences.

Synopsis

An entrepreneur, Sridhar suffers huge losses in his shrimp farming business. He comes to the city to meet his friend Kalyan.

Kalyan works in a firm that looks like an IT office but, in reality, is basically a bunch of thieves, fraudsters and scamsters working together to cheat gullible people.

Sridhar’s sudden trip is out of desperation. He has to arrange a huge sum of money which he takes as a loan for his business from a financier. The financier demands that either Sridhar pay him back or give the hand of his sister in marriage to him.

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A scientist and an experiment

In another part of the same city, there lives a scientist (Pandiarajan) who carries out research on animals. His research enables him to find a method through which the traits and behaviours of one animal can be transferred to another.

Looking to steal this finding and make a fortune by selling it in the international market is John Vijay (John Vijay), a former associate of the scientist.

John Vijay, a rich businessman now, employs three simpletons — Robo Shankar (Samadhanam), Thangadurai (Annadhanam), and Augustin (BlackBerry) — to steal the chip vital for the transfer.

They fail in their mission. As a result, John Vijay approaches Kalyan’s firm to complete the task.

Sridhar, who is in desperate need of money to stop his sister’s forced wedding, sees this as an opportunity to make money and convinces Kalyan to join him in this effort.

However, things get out of hand when both friends try to steal the formula. A series of unexpected developments occur and Kalyan gets accidentally turned into a woman (Hansika). What happens then is what Partner is all about.

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Funny in parts 

When all that a film has to offer is comedy, one can do nothing but just smile and while away time. However, even for this to happen, most jokes in the film must work.

To director Manoj Damodharan’s credit, he creates a number of situations in the plot that provide enough scope for comedians to deliver genuinely funny jokes.

Sadly though, not all comedians make good use of the opportunities that come their way. While some jokes work, others don’t.

Performances

Aadhi Pinnisetty and Yogi Babu combine well, in the beginning, to keep the film engaging and entertaining.

However, as the story progresses, the responsibility of providing the laughs falls heavily on the shoulders of actress Hansika who does a reasonably good job.

The portions where Yogi Babu turns into Hansika are quite interesting with Hansika having to reproduce Yogi Babu’s body language.

To her credit, Hansika does a fine job in several sequences and to some degree, succeeds in her mission.

Ravi Mariya as Agni Kunju and Robo Shankar as Samadhanam also provide entertainment. However, despite their best efforts the film doesn’t impress.

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Final take

Partner is meant for those who wish to watch a film that doesn’t look to preach and has a few laughs to offer.

(Views expressed here are personal.)