Youth Movie Review

At a time when the directors from most of the film industries in India are trying to make larger-than-life action dramas and mythological dramas, the new-age filmmakers from Kollywood are coming up with romantic comedy movies aimed at the young crowd. Dragon, Nilavuku En Mel Ennadi Kobam, Dude, With Love and now, Youth, a total of five notable romantic comedy films released in Tamil since February 2025. If we consider other romantic comedy films with relatively unknown faces, the count may cross ten or even fifteen. The good thing is that most of the notable Tamil rom-com films worked well with the audience and ended up becoming commercial successes.

Continuing the latest trend, the twenty-five-year-old actor, director, composer, playback singer, and lyricist, Ken Karunas, came up with ‘Youth’. Ken Karunas is the son of well known Tamil character artist, Ken Karunas. After doing a few films(Dhanush’s Vaathi, etc.), as a child artist, the multi-talented, Ken, along with the team, made ‘Youth’. Apart from directing, penning the lyrics for two songs, he also did the lead role in the film. Notable actors, Suraj Venjaramoodu & Devadarshini, did crucial roles and G. V. Prakash Kumar, scored the music for the film. The film was released in theatres in Tamil today and is set to release in Telugu on the 26th of March in theatres. Did ‘Youth’ have the potential to become a huge success? How did, Ken Karunas, do as a director and lead actor? Let’s figure it out with a detailed analysis.

What is it about?

Praveen(Ken Karunas) joins the eleventh standard after passing the tenth board exams with just the ‘pass’ marks. His only aim in life is to find the love of his life and marry her. What happens when Praveen falls in love with three girls one after the other during his 11th and 12th standards? How did his irresponsible behaviour affect his mother(Devadarshini) and his father(Suraj Venjaramoodu). How did Praveen realise his mistakes and decide to be responsible and sincere? Forms the rest of the story.

Performances:

Ken Karunas has a very expressive face, a good smile and seems to have good acting potential. The ‘Star’ qualities in him are very evident throughout the film. The school backdrop of ‘Youth’, requires him to appear and act as a boy next door as much as possible but in an attempt to show all of ‘Star’ qualities, the character he played appeared unreliable. Suraj Venjaramoodu and Devadarshini, in the roles of middle-class parents delivered a first-rate performance. Both of them excelled in generating fun and emotional sequences as well.

Anishma Anilkumar, Meenakshi Dinesh and Priyanshi Yadav, played the roles of three lead actresses. All three of them delivered good performances but all three of them appeared older than the age of the characters they played in the film. Senior actress, Nalini, did well in the role of the headmistress of the school. The three boys in the hero’s gang, came up with good performances and were able to generate fun well.

Technicalities:

G. V. Prakash Kumar’s songs are good but there are quite a few songs in the film. There is a song for almost every ten minutes throughout the film and after a point, it felt tiresome whenever a song started to play. Editing by Nash is decent but he should have done a better job during the first half of the film. Viki’s cinematography is soothing and pleasant. A few visuals which he captured during the montages in songs, deserve a special mention. Let’s discuss the writer and the director, Ken Karunas’ work in detail in the analysis section.

Positives:

1.⁠ ⁠Emotional Drama
2.⁠ ⁠Actors Performances

Negatives:

1.⁠ ⁠The ‘School’ Backdrop
2.⁠ ⁠Over The Top Romantic Track(s)
3.⁠ ⁠Predictable Execution
4.⁠ ⁠Too Many Songs

Analysis:

Thulluvadho Ilamai(2002) to 7G Rainbow Colony(2004), to quite recent, Dragon(2025), Dude(2025) and With Love(2026), Tamil film directors came up with multiple coming-of-age films that worked very well not just with the Tamil audience but with the Telugu audience as well. In all the aforementioned movies, the innocence the lead characters possess during their adolescence, worked in favour of those films and made the audience relate to those characters.

The films in this genre have the potential to work out well with all sections of the audience when the director of the film makes sure to come up with relatable characterisations of the lead characters. This is where, Ken Karunas, lost the track in ‘Youth’. The lead character here hails from the middle class family and the setup around him is relatable but he acts, behaves, dances and fights like a ‘Superstar’. Everything during the first two hours of the film appeared over the top and was quite unrelatble.

Read this – ‘A group of four good-for-nothing guys. Just like any other friends gang, they too have a gang leader. His only aim in life is to charm a girl and let her fall in love with him. After getting rejected by multiple girls, he comes across an equally good-for-nothing girl. Both of them end up becoming friends and eventually fall in love with each other as well. And yes, the boy has a very loving mother and a father with whom he always fights and argues.

Coming back to the love story, when the girl goes out of town for a few days, another girl comes out of nowhere approaches the guy and proposes to him. Due to some issues, he breaks up both the girls and fall in love with another girl. When she proposes, the girl rejects saying she’s too ambitious and he’s not a fit for her because he’s a ‘Zero’ in studies. In the meantime, a tragedy hits the boy’s family. Finally, he realises how irresponsible he was, decides to concentrate on studies and ends up becoming a top ranker’.

The entire above-mentioned setup sounds very family but it has enough substance to become a very good coming-of-age romantic drama, isn’t it? You must be imagining the boy doing his Graduation, right? No. You are wrong. The boy here is a 10th pass out and just got himself into the 11th standard but he behaves as a twenty-year-old or above. The comedy, the songs, the romantic and the emotional drama, was good but it is very difficult to connect with the film because of the young age setup on which the film was built. To put it in simple words, it is a tailor made film for Pradeep Ranganathan in the backdrop of engineering college or any other graduation degree.

Overall, Ken Karunas seems to be a very promising director and actor to watch out for, but the decision to set the film on the tenth-passed-out-boy character, may not go well with a majority of the audience. The emotional drama during the final act was engaging and may make your eyes moist but the proceedings during the first two acts of the film appeared very odd and unrelatable.

Bottomline – Routine Youth

Rating – 2.5/5

Tags Youth