Let's start with what Vishnu Edavan gets right in his debut, because there is actually a lot to like before things start to wobble.
Hi is not trying to reinvent Tamil romance. It's a simple runaway-to-Chennai story with two wounded people. Mayil - a guy who gets rejected by his own cousin for being too timid, who wants love marriage so badly that he bolts when his parents start bringing horoscopes home - lands in the city. A year later, Devayani - the only daughter of a heartbroken drunkard father Indhiran, whose mother Usha walked out when she was a baby - is pushed into marrying an abusive man and does the same. She ends up at her childhood friend Lux's place, who just happens to be Mayil's roommate and colleague. It's contrived, yes, but its sweet contrived.
And for the first hour, it actually works.
Kavin is the biggest win here. After Star (2024), this is easily his most settled, most likable performance and deservedly his best box office after that film. He plays timid without making it irritating, funny without trying too hard. You actually root for Mayil to grow a spine. The supporting cast - Prabhu, Bhagyaraj, Radikaa, VTV Ganesh, Sathyan - do what seasoned actors do, they hold the village portions together and land the few comedy bits that actually land.
Technically, the film is very pleasant on the eyes. Rajesh Shukla's cinematography is warm, all those soft yellows and greens, and it makes even the depressing village look like a place you'd want to visit. Costume design is surprisingly on point, very lived-in, not catalogue fashion. And Jen Martin's music - despite what some will tell you - is fantastic when it needs to be. It doesn't scream for attention, it just sits nicely under the romance and lifts a couple of scenes in the second half that would otherwise sink.
The first half is genuinely engaging. It's light, breezy, has that sweet-surprise vibe the posters promised. You think, okay, maybe we have a decent, uncomplicated entertainer for a lazy weekend.
Then interval happens. And Hi decides it has seen too many other Tamil rom-coms and wants to be all of them at once.
This is where the film starts borrowing - sorry, getting *inspired* - so shamelessly that you can play bingo with the references. Every twist, every climax beat, you see coming from about 20 minutes earlier. The second half doesn't just slow down, it stretches like an old rubber band and then turns melodramatic for no good reason. That pleasant vibe from the first half turns into, "Okay, we get it, please just end."
And we have to talk about the Devayani problem. On paper, Devayani should be a rooted, wounded village girl who has been holding her family together since she was a baby. What we get on screen is Nayanthara playing her usual ultra-modern, perfectly-lit self. Nothing wrong with Nayanthara as a star, but she feels completely unattached to this character.
The dialect, the body language, the styling - it never sells that she is from that village. Put her in a real village getup, strip the glam make-up, give her some dust, and maybe it would have been half convincing. As it is, she looks like she just stepped out of a Chennai ad shoot into a paddy field. Some other actress who could actually disappear into that world would have made this work. Her casting here feels like the biggest miscalculation of the film. She is not bad in the way that makes you angry, she is just... there. Not eye candy, not powerhouse, just flat.
The script doesn't help her either. Predictable plot, second-half slump, and a soundtrack that, apart from Jen's two good tracks, is instantly forgettable. It's the kind of film where you walk out humming nothing.
In the end, Hi is exactly what that one-line review said - a watch if you have absolutely nothing else to watch. Not a disaster, not a breakthrough. It's a decent, warm, slightly borrowed entertainer that Kavin carries sincerely on his shoulders, while everything around him, especially the writing and the heroine's miscast presence, keeps gently pulling it down.
ENDS
By
Sam Trailerman
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