Love and friendship has been the most used ingredients in Tamil cinema over generations. The film titled after the chapter about friendship in Thirukkural obviously has a lot to do with friendship and love, which was evident from the trailers also. Let's see how far Ravichandran has retained the knack he showed in dealing with these two aspects of life in his super hit films ‘Kannadhirey Thondrainal’ and ‘Majnu’.
Jeeva (Raj Bharath) is a Marine Engineering graduate waiting for a Navy job .He is in love with Pooja (Tejaswi) who runs an event management firm with her group of friends. Aravind (Amjath Khan) is a MBA final year student and his lover Maha (Reshmi Menon) is a classical dancer hailing from a middle class family.
The two couples accidentally catch up in a pub and become friends instantly. They become so close as a group of friends and move around together. Misunderstandings start creeping in. Circumstances lead to the wedding engagement of Jeeva and Maha without their knowledge.
What happens to the relationship between these four individuals and what happens to their friendship has been dealt in the rest.
Ravichandran has come up with a straight and simple tale about modern day love and friendship. The film moves around its four central characters. The film does not have any twist and turn that you expect in a regular commercial entertainer. It completely moves on the predictable lines.
But still the film holds you engaged to a large extent and offers ample sweet moments of love and friendship that transcends gender. Despite constantly making us expect a change of pairs, the writer-director safely stays away from any such steps. He draws a strict line between love and friendship. He shows the closeness of friendship between friends of opposite genders coming from an urban background and has neatly differentiated it from the intimacy between lovers.
The film neatly portrays the misunderstandings between individuals that will occur between lovers and friends due to various reasons including possessiveness. No character is blamed or shown in a poor light. The director should be specially appreciated for portraying the ultra modern heroine character in a very decent manner.
The dialogues are optimal and are impactful in conveying the background and emotions of the characters.
The director could have worked a little more in the script to give a convincing reason for the decisions made by certain characters in different stages of the film.
Why the family fixes the engagement without even informing it to the persons involved, why Aravind and Pooja are not ready to lend their ears for an explanation from Jeeva and Maha till the end, why can’t Aravind fails to inform Maha about his position to catch the flight to London that night even as he has asked her to wait for him to get married in the next morning. The reasons for these are either non-existent or inadequate. If these turns are backed with solid reasons, ‘Natapadhigaram’ would have been a more relatable film and the overall impact could have been much better.
Apart from this the film with a running time of just 118 minutes seems lengthy. Especially the first half drags initially with repeated scenes and the crisis starts only a few minutes before the interval. The placement of songs is also a dampener.
The film also suffers the 1990s hangover as most of the incidents, emotions and dialogues remind us of the films of that period.
Rajbharath as Jeeva is promising, His height is a big plus for him and he does not fail in giving the right emotions. Amjath Khan has to concentrate more on dialogue delivery and his performance on the whole is otherwise decent. Tejaswi is adequate in her role. She also suits well and utilizes the scope for glamour, offered by her role. Her lip sync is a little bothersome. Reshmi Menon fits well in to the role of a girl hailing from a traditional family who is true to her love, friendship and family. She emotes well too. M.S.Bhaskar and Subbu Panchu make an impact with their respective supporting characters.
Deepak Nilambur’s re-recording fits the bill and a couple of songs are good to listen. Cinematographer R.B.Gurudev’s visuals are pleasing to watch and add up well to the feel good factor of the film. Sabu Joseph’s editing could have been crisper especially in the first half. Art Director deserves a special mention for selecting the best places in Chennai throughout the film.
Verdict: Better writing could have placed 'Natpadhigaram 79' in the list of memorable Tamil films on friendship and love. Still it is not a letdown and can be given a go with your friends or loved ones.
