Oru Nalla Naal Paathu Solren Review

ONNPS - Gautham Karthick does a 'Mouna Ragam'

Writer-Producer-Director, Arumugakumar has banked heavily on the formidable Vijay Sethupathi to carry his attempt at a no holds barred dark comedy. Will this zany narration find its takers remains to be seen.

Yaman (Vijay Sethupathi) is the leader of a clan of thieves from Yamalingapuram in deep interior Andhra Pradesh. Much alike the 'Soodhu Kavvum' gang they go by the same principles of never indulging in violence during their heists. While robbing a house Yaman sees the photograph of a young girl and decides to kidnap her. The girl (Niharika Konidela) is a college student in Chennai who is just striking a friendship with her senior Harish (Gautham Karthick). Why is Yaman after the girl and what happens to the three lead characters forms the rest of the screenplay.

Vijay Sethupathi for the first time in his career looks jaded and he makes do with stock expressions throughout the movie which is pretty disappointing to his fans and admirers. Gautham Karthick is the biggest revelation in this film as he nails the unstable college kid to perfection. Reminding the Navarasa Nayagan in his zest and dialogue delivery, he comes as a huge relief among a barrage of insipid scenes and characters. In the beginning Vijay Sethupathi asks Gautham to take off the notion from his mind that he is 'Mouna Ragam' Karthick, but ironically like his father in the classic movie the youngster steals the show from everyone else. Debutante Niharika Konidela is perfect for her character considering who she really is in the story. Daniel Annie Pope has put his body through a lot of pain to squeeze out a few laughs here and there. Rajkumar as one of VJS's sidekicks shouts at the top of his voice thinking its comedy while the talented Ramesh Tilak is wasted. Gayathrie and Viji Chandrasekhar are victims of bad characterisations (Yes, even queer characters need some writing for the actors to perform with).

The basic plot is quite interesting and till the interval point anticipation does build up as to where the story is heading towards. The movie does not take itself seriously at any point of time which makes it unpredictable which is another plus. The director has tried to infuse a few social messages through the dialogues like the Raman Ravanan paradox (changed as Subban Kuppan in the final cut) and songs.

On the downside, the story never moves forward and goes on endlessly in a circle. Stupidity is not a bad thing if the comedy works out but here it doesnt and so all the seemingly novel ideas dished out turn into damp squibs. The VJS-GK-Niharika triangle nothing is exploited and there are no confrontations between them to make it interesting and they all end up literally blindfolded into a deep forest just like the audience.

Justin Prabhakaran has come up with a winner as far as the background score is concerned and he keeps the proceedings alive with his folk beats and queer crescendo to match the screenplay. The songs however do not have repeat value. Editor R.Govindaraj should be lauded for trying his best to enliven the narration especially in the first half. The rest of the technical work is passable. Director Arumugakumar has taken an interesting plot and has tried to narrate it in a zany manner but unfortunately the execution fails him. As a producer however he deserves praise for wrapping up one of the topmost star's film with a bare minimum budget.

Verdict : Go for it if you fancy an experimental film with a different type of narration .