Prince review: SK's film is filled with cliches & outdated humour

Cast: Sivakarthikeyan, Sathyaraj, Maria Ryaboshapka and Premgi Amaren.

Director: Anudeep KV

Music director: Thaman S

Editor: Praveen KL

Synopsis: A happy-go-lucky school teacher falls in love at first sight with a British woman. who is his colleague. He tries to woo her amid a comedy of errors and conflicts.

Films based on 'comedy of errors' have always worked well with the audience, provided there is real drama and underlying humour with some clever writing. Even though the characters in the film are quirky and odd, we have rooted for them to an extent. That's why Anudeep KV's previous film Jathi Ratnalu worked.

Coming to Prince, the film introduces us to Anbu (Sivakarthikeyan), who is flawed-- similar to SK's characters from his previous films. Here Anbu bunks school and binge-watches films and even helps his pupil to pass exams by letting them copy. Prince forces upon us a few dialogues that makes Anbu relatable to the audience and doesn't work predominantly.

The film then moves to Ulaganathan (Sathyaraj), an overenthusiastic and larger-than-life dad, who wants Anbu to marry someone out of barriers that society has created-- a topic that is forever relevant. Even though the actor tries to get into the skin of his character, the writing leaves him with no scope. Apart from Sathyaraj, crucial characters like Anbu's friends are just mere props.

The self-aware nature also isn't cleverly written as it seems. From making fun of the actor's lyrics to using his own or recently-released songs which compared to his previous film are a letdown.

Jessica's role (Maria Riaboshapka) is written in a generic way that foreign actors are usually written, there are a few touches of meta here as well.

Apart from Jessica, other foreign actors struggle to emote. One-liners and jokes don't land well and fall flat, due to the delivery and modulation by supporting actors like Premgi. Cameo characters too don't help the film in making it interesting. Anudeep neither adds anything to the film even as it progresses to the second half.

The climax stretch about humanity doesn't elevate the plot as it is too late for even this 135 min watch becomes a tedious affair by then.

Sivakarthikeyan does his best, he brings his charismatic presence effortlessly on-screen and his dedication can be seen in his dance portions in all the Thaman's catchy songs, but, unfortunately, Prince suffers from mediocre writing filled with cliches and outdated humour where nothing evokes the much-intended laughs.