If ever there was an award for the Best Running Film in Tamil cinema in recent times, it has to be given to Narathan . It starts off with a run at Coimbatore railway station; Vishnu’s (Nakul) parents are waiting for him to board the train and he makes a dash for it at the last minute.
The running doesn’t stop there. He’s actually going to Chennai to meet the girl he’s going to marry (no prizes for guessing who… it’s his atthai ponnu ) but ends up meeting another girl on the train (played by Nikesha Patel), who is stuck in a problem which he just has to solve because, well, he’s the hero.
What the problem is we understand much later. For now, we’re introduced to the rich Radha Ravi, who nurtures dreams of producing films, his motley lot of so-called funny assistants. We’re informed how his mother and wife don’t approve of his filmi plans; they’d rather mind the kitchen and get the girl of the house married to his mora paiyyan .
But Vishnu has different plans.
He prefers the company of his best buddy Ashwin (or ‘Kumki’ Ashwin, the way he’s credited) to understand what went wrong with his ‘train friend’, who is chased by random goondas.
Meanwhile, Radha Ravi gets in a director and his assistant (Premgi Amaren and Mayilsamy) to narrate a storyline… which has uncanny similarities with what is actually playing out in his household.
Sounds a bit like Yaavarum Nalam ? Only, Narathan wouldn’t come close to even the first rough draft of that film; the writing is a let-down at most places, with comic lines falling flat.
The music by Mani Sharma doesn’t help onscreen proceedings much – when the nervous leads are trying to escape from the menacing-looking ‘villains’, we get a, voila, gaana song. Add to that an exasperatingly-lengthy flashback in the second half that tries to explain some loose ends, and you know there’s nothing else to look forward to in Narathan .
The less said about the acting the better.
Nakul isn’t bad, but after playing a science geek in Thamizhukku Enn Ondrai Azhuthavum , you expect him to choose better. Nikesha Patel is as clueless as she is breathless; why wouldn’t she be, if all she had to do was run the length and breadth of Chennai?
Even veterans like M.S. Bhaskar and company aren’t spared from the running as they try to track, rather unsuccessfully, the speeding on-the-go ‘train friends’.
‘Powerstar’ Srinivasan makes an appearance in the end as a writer, but you’re too drained by then to appreciate his antics.
Narathan is a romantic-comedy, I understand, but that genre doesn’t necessarily need to restrict itself to the three-odd-songs-five-odd-jokes format, does it? Hold that thought right there: I got to run.
Narathan
Genre: Romantic comedy
Director: Naga Venkatesh
Cast: Nakul, Nikesha Patel, Premgi Amaren, Shruthi Ramakrishna
Storyline: A man’s chance encounter with a girl on a train changes his life plans
Bottomline: All run, no fun
