What do you do when you have a one-liner for a story? You have the option to develop it via a reasonably hard process called ‘scripting’.
But what if your claim to fame was making YouTube videos out of one-liner ideas that rely on humour, and its Indian cousins ( mokka, kadi etc.), but devoid of substance. This is Karthik Venugopalan’s dilemma with Nenjamundu Nermaiyundu Odu Raja.
At less than two hours of runtime, Nenjamundu Nermaiyundu Odu Raja feels like a longer version of a YouTube spoof video. At least, that is what you're made to think this film is for 80 per cent of the time, until the plot reveal happens.
We are introduced to Shiva (Rio Raj) and Vicky (Vigneshkanth), a couple of pranksters who have no real ambition in life other than to make money. They happen to cross paths with Radha Ravi — as Jippakaran (we never get to know if his character actually has a name), a wealthy business man — when they attempt to prank him, but end up getting caught red-handed. Impressed by their outwardly persona, Ravi asks them to complete three tasks in exchange for a lot of money. What these tasks are, do they complete it, and how it changes them forms the rest of the plot.
But here’s an advisory though. If you’re not an avid follower of the 10 or so Tamil YouTube channels with the most subscribers, you may not know some of the actors! Ergo, their antics may fly right over your head, and you may not even know it. I realised this when the characters of Mani and his ‘trainer’ made their screen entry to cheers from a few young men in the audience.
- Cast: Rio Raj, Radha Ravi, RJ Vigneshkanth, Shirin Kanchwala, Nanjil Sampath
- Director: Karthik Venugopalan
- Storyline: Two YouTube pranksters, whose only aim in life is to make money, are subjected to a series of tasks by a wealthy businessman with an agenda
The bigger issue is in the detailing. There are many characters in the film. But not one is sketched well enough to keep you hooked, or make you care for them.
Even during the plot reveal that leads into the climax, it was tough trying to connect with the ‘social message’ the director attempts to convey, because we don’t care for the lead character. It is ironical that the message is also about the ‘who cares’ attitude in our society.
Another example of this problem is Chutti Aravind’s character, Ram. We are introduced to Ram at the start of the movie, a devoted brother, who indulges the antics of Rio Raj and Vigneshkanth. We get an idea that all three may have been orphaned, and grew up in a ‘home’, but nothing supports the idea that Rio Raj completely forgets Ram’s existence until the plot reveal scene. More bizarre is how Aravind is inserted randomly during the key scene, and is then shown to have influenced a change of character in the lead actor. The disconnect was unreal.
But there’s no time for detailing. In fact, there isn’t a lot of time for anyone in NNOR — not even a duet song, and they make an obvious tease out of it. Why must the woman (Shirin Kanchwala) fall for the hero in order to help him out in his tasks is... well, that’s like every other Tamil commercial film there is. The laughs are too few and too far between to call it a plus. Pop-culture references have been kept to a minimum, and socio-political issues from the past two years takes centre-stage.
The film generated anticipation pre-release because it was a Sivakarthikeyan production, and because the actor-producer had a good debut with Kanaa . Despite the ‘blah’ feeling one may have walking out of the theatre, it appears that Nenjamundu... could still be a profitable venture for Sivakarthikeyan, thanks to its low production value.
