If ever there was an award for the Best Running Film in Tamil cinema, 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 as he makes a dash for it at the last minute.
He’s going to Chennai to meet the girl he is all set to marry (no prizes for guessing who… it’s his atthai ponnu ) but ends up meeting another girl on the train (Nikesha Patel), who is stuck in a problem which he has to solve because, well, he’s the hero.
What this problem is, we learn much later. For now, we get introduced to the rich Radha Ravi, who dreams of producing films, with his motley of so-called funny assistants. We’re told that 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 (‘Kumki’ Ashwin), and tries to understand what went wrong with his ‘train friend’, who gets chased by random goondas.
Nakul isn’t bad. Nikesha Patel is as clueless as she is breathless. Narathan is a romantic-comedy, all right, 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.
srinivasa ramanujam
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
