If Hari had made Seval some 40 years back, he would have been bang on his target audiences. Unfortunately he has dished out the film for Diwali 2008 viewers, who will not stomach such a stale weepy story of Thankachi Pasam and supreme sacrifices. It is a steamy tearjerker woven into a doomed romance. It questions the basic intellect of the audiences, and the second half slides down the slippery slope of half-baked melodrama laced with blood. Hari has helped himself to Bollywood director Sooraj Barajatiya’s, library and taken the basic thread from Hum Aap Ke Hai Kaun and Maine Pyaar Kiya. He has mixed it with his usual formula and packaging, but added too much of sentiments which makes the film highly melodramatic and gives it a 60’s glycerin tearjerker feel and look. The film opens in 2008 with Murugesan (Bharat) coming out of jail, and the flashback begins at Sivasailam village somewhere near Ambasamudram in southern Tamilnadu and tells the story of the protagonist from1989 to 1991. Murugesan is a vagabond who is not serious in life and spends most of his time loitering around with his uncle Thapal Thangavel (Vadivel), the village postman. His father (Rajesh) is a hardworking wholesale flower seller who has his own flower garden. One day Murugesan meets Parijatam (Poonam Bajwa) a beautiful Brahmin girl and daughter of the local temple priest (Y.G Mahendran) and falls for her. Parijatam has been brought up by her elder sister Gayathri (Simran) who marries a guy (Prem) chosen by her father. At the same time there is local feudal landlord and village head (Sampath), who has an eye on Parijatham, which leads to a conflict with Murugesan, who has now turned a new leaf to win over his girl! Meanwhile after delivery Gayathri suffering from cancer dies leaving Parijatham holding the baby. The orthodox Brahmin Agraharam relatives and friends force her to marry her brother-in-law! On a parallel track, a heart broken Murugesan tries to save her from a lusting relative (Krishna) and the village head. Want to hear more of this dumb story? The film just drives you crazy, and story telling itself is confusing with a lot of plot holes. At times it is hard to tell what the film is about, though it is very predictable at every turn as Hari has taken certain scenes and situations from his earlier films! Totally devoid of any original snatches of writing, the film plods along for nearly 2 hours and 45 minutes. In 
the first half there are some comedy scenes between Vadivel and Bharat which raises a few laughs, but after some time it becomes repetitive. Vadivel is present throughout the film, as the postman who is more interested in playing cupid between the hero and heroine. Simran’s character and her make-up (post interval) has not been well etched. New girl Poonam is just ok as she lacks screen presence in a meaty role. Bharat does what Hari’s heroes have done in the past with style but has been let down by a poor script as some of the characters action is not justifiable. On the technical side Priyan’s camera is a plus point and the locales are lush and he used the Jimmy –Jip crane to the maximum, to get top-angle shots. One of the biggest disappointments is the music of G.V Prakash, who has not been able to churn out a single melody. Sense, style and story is missing in Seval All in all a very disappointing venture from Hari who has given entertaining films in the past. Banner: Jinnah Creations Cast: Bharath, poonam Bajwa, Simran, Vadivelu Direction: Hari Production: M A Jinnah Music: G V Prakash