Pandiraj has a flair for storytelling, slow, gentle and realistic to drive home his point of view. For the first time he has wielded the megaphone for a full-fledged romcom and who better than Simbu-Nayan can do it with ease. Idhu Namma Aalu is a simple tale of a modern day youngster who tip toes after a series of love stories and ends up marrying true love. Simbu’ s personal strength has always been in accepting his love life in open, but it needs more than just guts to troll yourself onscreen, in INA the movie manifests itself with enough jokes and mockery on the actor’s various love “Leelaigal” and sportingly he takes it on a lighter note.
The film opens on a note by introducing the jolly go life of the IT population with a glimpse of our hero too. The director too wastes no time and gets to the point, Simbu and Nayan are engaged but the cloud surrounding Simbu’s past glooms over their marriage. His past with Andrea and coming into terms with Nayan, their drools and sticky love after getting hitched form rest of the plot. The film is no rocket science, Pandiraj has taken pages out of what happens in an average Indian’s life; as he tumbles across various love bugs and finally finds “The Girl” whom he actually wants to spend time with and then crosses the usual huddles of parents ego mismatch and the endless nights lost in love conversations. This is in brief what INA is about, but with some good casting and technicality, the movie gets going with the right dosage of entertainment.
Pandiraj has detailed the characters remarkably and they fit their respective roles with ease. Simbu as Shiva is stylish, clean shaved and a happy playboy IT dude who loves his father more than anything else, goes to any extent to impress his girl. Nayanthara’s character is that of a no nonsense girl who is straight to the point and loves to tease her boyfriend, accepts the reality and forgives him when it matters. Andrea is the chubby girl who loves to spend time her guy, sees through the situation and accepts the realism in it and yes! She looks dead drop gorgeous in INA. But one guy who steals the show is definitely Soori, his timing, body language and everything is spot on. With a story that drools and drips in romance, his quick wit between them eases the audience with the much required laugh. He is the kind of guy who keeps chipping in one liners with side commentary when a friend is in a deep conversation with his girlfriend, and the one liners are simply hilarious.
Simbu and Nayan share an amazing chemistry in the movie, their comfort zone is one thing to watch out for. Their maturity level has come a long way since Vallavan with their conversations being the highlight of the movie. Through the first half Pandiraj captures the story of the hero who seem to be lost in love, then as the movie gets going through the second, the screenplay just drags along rather too slowly. For couples who are engaged, just married, INA should do wonders as Pandiraj simply doesn’t shows a snapshot of what happens after getting hitched, but steals a large portion of their lives and brings it to frame with Simbu and Nayan fitting in the fiancé roles perfectly.
The funny part about Idhu Namma Aalu is the amount of gags and trolls the film has on Simbu’s romantic side. To an extent the movie itself looks like being inspired from the actor’s life and the trolls are endless. For instance Nayan asks Simbu what to name their daughter and he keeps going as Aishwarya, Shruti etc and she responds by saying they should name their son as Arya, Dhanush, Simbu etc. These are just one instances from which INA capitalizes on. Pandiraj’s usual story telling takes a little U turn as he shifts gears with romcom, the pluses entirely being on the lead cast with strong performances from them and Balasubramanian’s fresh camera work that captures the essence of youthfulness. Songs from Kural are melodious in tone with the movie and makes way for a decent debut. Soori probably is one of the biggest strengths in this movie, his presence makes the movie enjoyable. The movie might not tend to cater the needs of all types of audiences and looks tailor made to be for the youngsters, even more specifically for soon to be married or just married folks. The slow screenplay might hurt the movie’s overall outcome which makes the watch time longer than it actually is.
Idhu Namma Aalu is a decent romantic entertainer, mixes the right dosage of fun, love and enough mockery on Simbu who gives it a personal touch with a smile. The film ends on a light hearted note and with a notion of could have been a lot better, but still making it an enjoyable watch.
