Naalu Peruku Nalladhuna Edhuvum Thappilla review: A successful crowd funded film
Director: Dinesh Selvaraj
Cast: Karthikeyan, Prabhu, Jagadeesh, Evansri
Dinesh Selvaraj, a former assistant of Mani Ratnam debuts with a crime thriller NPNET and it is an experimental attempt made from crowd funding resources.
Prabhu (Prabhu) is the second son of a middle class honest cop (Arul Jothi). He has just lost his elder brother in an accident. Prabhu is in need of money, as he wants to go to abroad for a job. But he is vexed by his dad’s simple and upright life, although he gets chances to make good money. At the funeral of his brother, he meets Anil (Karthikeyan), Sridhar (Evansri) and Johny (Jagadeesh) and later comes to know that they are engaged in small time crimes to make money. Slowly, the timid Prabhu is also brainwashed and lured in. Later Prabhu is given the task of carrying looted money of Rs 5 lakhs by the trio and hand it over at a different location. On his way, an incident happens and Prabhu loses it. The gang gives him one week’s time to return the lost money and started harassing Prabhu in many ways. What does Prabhu do to return the money and in the process, how he discovers a startling revelation and comes out of the predicament using his intelligence forms the rest.
Prabhu as the naïve and cowardly guy fits the character well, but his lamenting every alternative scene is tedious to watch. Karthikeyan, the telly hero turned villain hardly has any lengthy lines except repeating ‘Life is beautiful’. The other two Evansri and Jagadeesh are adequate. Arul Jothi as the straightforward cop is aptly cast.
Dinesh Selvaraj and his dad legendary writer Selvaraj have written the story. The novelty of the film is that there’s no female characters and neither a duet/item song, nor boozing scenes, which are normally associated with such films. The problem with the screenplay is that it lacks depth and even a tauter presentation could have helped. Music by Navin and Beon is functional and cinematography done in available natural light by Bhagath Singh is laudable.
