A self-aware fun ride that largely works- Cinema express
What did mainstream Tamil popular culture train us about going to school? There’s a free go on the subject of making enjoyable of our lecturers, and the extra they’re caricaturish, the extra our liberty to take potshots at them. Between Ramki and Co acing it and Sivakarthikeyan and staff giving it their greatest, loads of us grew up. In SonyLIV’s newest Tamil net sequence, Meme Boys, the main target is on only one authority determine, Dean Narayanan (a terrific Guru Somasundaram), and the way a gaggle of boys and a lady take him down utilizing the digital weapon of mass destruction — Memes.
The premise is easy, and creators Rajiv Rajaram-Drishya and director Arun Koushik are effectively conscious of the uncomplicated nature of their central plot, and largely weave an unpretentious narrative. There’s a meme-making competitors, and 4 engineering faculty college students — Mojo (Aadhitya Bhaskar), Julie (Namritha), Energy (Jayanth) and Jumbo (Siddharth) — type a staff to win the grand prize of Rs 10 lakhs. By the facility of their memes they create adjustments of their Apoorva College and earn the wrath of their disciplinarian dean.
With a wafer-thin plot and eight episodes, it turns into vital that the makers of Meme Boys get their writing on level. For starters, they get the character arcs of their leads proper. Mojo is a dreamer and a goofball. Energy is an enterprising go-getter. Julie is a spunky and no-nonsense achiever. Jumbo is a scared however decided believer. And the 4 of them occur to be good with memes. It’s attention-grabbing how the writing didn’t actually permit sturdy friendships to be solid, and even trace at a semblance of a romance observe between the leads. Not all friendships are for all times, and never all of them flip into love throughout the span of some weeks. That is undoubtedly one big leap for mankind. Additionally, factors for representing the change of idols within the current era of college-goers. We now have Sivakarthikeyan and Rohit Sharma posters adorning the partitions of those college students. It reveals consideration to the new-gen pondering.
Director: Arun Koushik
Forged: Guru Somasundaram, Aadhitya Bhaskar, Siddharth, Namritha
Streaming on: SonyLIV
The narrative is solely based mostly out of this school, and it’s a very self-sufficient panorama that offers credence to even essentially the most outlandish of premises. Take, for example, the set-piece the place the Dean shuts down the Wi-fi system within the faculty to weed out the Meme Boys. Setting this school in a godforsaken place with no cell web connectivity, this turns into sufficient of a plot level to push an episode or two. Equally, each impediment for the meme creators comes with a easy resolution that doesn’t actually warrant an elaborate plan. Whereas it might sound too handy for many of its runtime, I preferred how there’s that proverbial plot twist in the direction of the top that quells a few of these doubts. The dialogues are fairly gratifying too, and my group of mates and colleagues are responsible of resorting to the sort of humour effectively into our 30s and I can not actually fault these 20-year-olds for doing the identical.
Nonetheless, it isn’t all clean crusing for Meme Boys both. The specificity of their target market runs the chance of alienating ones searching for totally different kinds of comedy. It’s made for the social media era, however not those sharing messages like ‘For those who don’t ship it to 10 folks…’ It’s for those who know the distinction between regular memes and dank memes. It’s for those who know the antecedents of the memes which might be being shared round mindlessly, and are conscious of the assorted teams concerned within the manufacturing of such content material. We just lately noticed in Fingertip Season 2 how trolling and memes are weaponised by the powers that be, and even in Meme Boys, such issues are alluded, however we’re proven that behind all this digital wizardry, it’s a one that has to decide on between proper and unsuitable. It was one of many many uncannily accountable moments in Meme Boys. Sure, it’s an overwhelmingly easy narrative that goes for simple laughs aided by a soundtrack by Gopal Rao. However it by no means forgets to deal with the meme creators’ social accountability that comes with wielding such affect.
Whereas the leads are pretty efficient, particularly Siddharth and Jayanth, Aadithya’s antics don’t all the time hit the mark. Whereas it’s Aadithya’s position that brings within the OTT-ness to the present, and he does ship it with aplomb, there’s an overarching sense of rambling that takes away a little bit of sheen from the position. Julie’s character begins with a way of individuality, however it’s disappointing that her sturdy voice will get drowned down among the many boys. Guru Somasundaram has a ball because the Dean and brings in a way of gravitas to a predominantly recent forged that feeds off the vitality of this powerhouse. Meme Boys does have a repository of sturdy supporting roles that anchor the sequence every time it will get too indulgent. There’s Badava Gopi’s Kathiresan, Latha Sathyamurthy’s warden Sivagami, and Devadarshini’s Nandini, who’re a lot enjoyable as recurring characters within the sequence that makes us root for extra of them in Season 2 that’s hinted on the finish.
Many net sequence in Tamil typically purpose for the celebs solely to seek out themselves down on the sidewalks. Nonetheless, the makers of Meme Boys don’t have such lofty ambitions. It’s attention-grabbing to see that barring a line or two about sure political developments within the State, the memes in Meme Boys and the references are largely crowd-pleasing and inoffensive. It is aware of its target market and caters to them with out lacking a beat. We see references to common meme templates, and it helps that the conceptualised meme in every of the eight episodes is generally efficient. It won’t make us giggle out loud, however a chuckle right here, a giggle there, and an entire lot of eye-rolling in between, ensures that Meme Boys is unquestionably participating and effectively… value a share or two.
