144 is mildly funny but mostly boring. Two villages are constantly fighting with one another. Once when one of the villages want to dump a glass Ganesha in the local pond, a dispute arises. The collector declares 144 in the village to avoid violence. There is a parallel story of hidden gold biscuits which our heroes Mirchi Siva and Ashok Selvan are after. The villains are also after the gold. Who gets the gold is narrated with humour and the 144 curfew as backdrop. The characterisation is very good, especially the inspector, mute artist and feelings villain. The film works only in parts as most of the humour is repetitive and unimpressive. Some of Siva’s humour is good but mostly they miss the mark. The songs are no good. CV Kumar normally selects a good script and wonder how he chose to produce this film. It is ordinary.
