Hey Sinamika is a romantic comedy film written by Madhan Karky, directed by Brinda, and produced by Jio Studios in association with Global One Studios. It has Dulquer Salmaan, Aditi Rao Hydari and Kajal Aggarwal in the lead roles, while Mirchi Vijay, Nakshatra Nagesh, Abishek Kumar and others play supporting roles. The film has music by Govind Vasantha and cinematography by Preetha Jayaraman.
Yaazhan (Dulquer Salmaan) is a software engineer who loves to cook and talk about everything under the sky. Mouna (Aditi Rao Hydari) is an ocean paleotempestology expert (a person who studies and researches about storms and winds) who is on a work trip to Cochin. Both of them meet at a cafe when a storm strikes, and while escaping they fall in love with each other and marry.
However, 2 years into the marriage, Mouna is fed up with Yaazhan's talkative nature and wants to get divorced. She doesn't know how to convey this, and gets the help of Malarvizhi (Kajal Aggarwal) who is a counselling psychologist. Despite a comparatively lesser screen time, Kajal Aggarwal makes the most of it and gives us a matured performance. The drama that follows here form the rest of Hey Sinamika's plot.
Hey Sinamika doesn't waste any time and gets into the story right in the first frame itself. And the story by Madhan Karky is focused, crisp and emotionally deep. It explores the emotional arc a woman in a toxic relationship goes through, and how it affects the people around her, including her husband as well.
Dulquer Salmaan portrays the character of Yaazhan beautifully. His character is a mix of youthful exuberance and the calmness of the ocean. On the other hand, Aditi Rao Hydari looks gorgeous and emotes really well as Mouna. However, contrary to her name, she is the storm that blows away the ocean called Yaazhan. This contradiction keeps the movie lively and energetic throughout, and also engages us.
While there are not many flaws in the writing or the technical stuff, there's always a feeling that the film could have dived deeper into the plot points and tapped into its potential better. There are a lot of solid moments but after a point they are underwhelming. Though Yaazhan's talkative nature is used as a tool to generate humour, it becomes repetitive and therefore predictable after a point.
Another big positive about the film is Govind Vasantha's songs and background score. He has created a Tamil version of his independent band Thaikudam Bridge's 'Fish Rock' as Yaazhan and Mouna tie the nuptial knot. This is a well known song belonging to the rock genre, and has heavy percussion as a part of it. And when Mouna rediscovers her love for Yaazhan, the same song's classical violin version alone plays as the background score. In short, he is trying to tell a story on his own, rather than just composing music.
Preetha Jayaraman's cinematography is brilliant, especially the lighting in the indoor scenes. There are two specific scenes that show how talented she is as a cinematographer. The first one is a Sangeet Dance where we see Kajal Aggarwal for the first time. The lighting in all the frames are topnotch, and gives us the feel of a Sanjay Leela Bhansali film. The second one is the pre-climax scene in a terrace where she breaks the 180 degree rule and the camera work is just fantastic. The edit could have been marginally better but there's nothing that sticks out like a sore thumb.
Overall, the music and camerawork make sure most of Hey Sinamika's flaws are hidden well, and the performances lend proper support in bringing to life Madhan Karky and director Brinda's vision. The film engages you for most of its duration but could have been trimmed. A good choice for a casual watch this weekend and you won't be disappointed.