Movie: Idhu Namma Aalu
Direction: Pandiraj
Cast: Silambarasan, Nayantara, Andrea Jeremiah
Music: Kuralarasan
Cinematographer: Balasubramaniam
Editor: Praveen K L
Genre: Romance, Comedy
Rating: ∗∗
What is it about: It’s about a young lad Shiva (Simbu) for whom love has become a treacherous thing, but when he meets Myla (Nayanthara) for the first time falls head over heels. What follows next is a roller coaster ride on romance directed by Pandiraj.
Why it’s disappointing: I could keep on going, but I really don’t want to because I feel it’s not worth it. But still would like to ponder on few things which gets to you, when you see a director like Pandiraj delivering a sloppy love story you have ever watched. The film lazes right from the first frame, nothing is exciting about it. But one can say the lead cast is one of the most exciting factor, can agree to that.
The film promises to be a witty romantic drama, but falls on its face. It runs at a snail pace with the lead characters constantly on phones most of the time. You can argue saying, the director is trying to be realistic. I find hardly anything quite close to that, I agree most of the couple romance over the phone for majority of the time, but showing what your friend does in real life on silver screen gets boring for 2 and odd hours of tiring run time.
The film makes you restless towards the end, you think it’s over but it drags for another 15 minutes of nonsense. INA’s USP was Simbu & Nayan, but their performances were so underplayed and looked plastic. And what can I say about Andrea, let’s not.
Another major thing which was not in sync was the timeline, as this was filmed long back but never got a chance for a release. And few things seemed so forced in the film that it was out of sync. For example Simbu’s ring tone.
The music was quite average nothing to rave about. And seeing Adah Sharma for a short bit in an item number was surprising. Cinematography by Balasubramaniem was disappointing, few aerial shots were so blurry making it look amateurish for an ace cinematographer.
What to watch out for: First of all, one character who really deserves a pat on the back in INA is Soori. He was literally the soul of the film, who takes it forward for the entire time. If at all that character was missing, people would have just walked out of the theatres. The audience must be in a trance thinking that Simbu & Nayan did a great work, but their work looked remotely good only due to the comedy timing of Soori, whose dialogues were skilfully penned with witty one-liners. Soori was the ingredient which made the love story of Simbu & Nayan a bearable one. Apart from this, I can hardly say anything was good.
Verdict: Pandiraj couldn’t revive the off screen chemistry, which the lead cast had it in their past. Thus resulted in a film which tires you out with sloppy scenes and lazy writing. Definitely not worth a watch, if you feel you could do this for Simbu, please go ahead.
