The main plot point of Nadodigal hinges on a typical Tier 3 Tamil Nadu town definition of friendship. Its no wonder then that the ensuing bravado shown for the benefit of friendship seems distant for us city dwellers. But, the emotions portrayed are honest and real – as real as it can get in any interior part of Tamil Nadu.
There are genuinely stunning moments peppered throughout the film – the untold understanding between Karuna and his friend Chandran, over his affair with Karuna’s sister; Karuna’s father reaching out to his son’s hand while getting him back home after bailing him out of the prison and the corny local politician handing over the catering contract to Karuna and group, despite their earlier rivalry – the way the politician points to an appropriate Thirukkural on the opposite wall, post this scene is a masterstroke by itself. But, Director Samudhrakkani seems inept in just the next scene, where he plays in the background, Chinna Kounder’s Andha Vaanatha Pola and waters down the entire impact. It’s strange that the same film has equal doses of subtlety and explicit melodrama that it doesn’t become an all out classic.
But, the positives more than make up for minor irritants – like the highway kuthu song and Sasikumar’s clear lack of polish in the emotional scenes, where, while looking considerably better than the other bearded doyen of Tamil cinema, T. Rajendar, still seems very, very filmy. His charm lies in portraying things honestly and sincerely – something that has been carried to every other actor in the film…Karuna’s sister, played by Abinaya; his fiancé, Ananya, with an incredibly charming characterization; his two friends, Bharani and Vijay (Bharani, in particular, as Pandi, is extraordinary) and even the local bigwig villain, against whom the trio hatches a plan. The acting is uniformly real, even as the action and chase scenes are picturized with marvelous tension.
Veena maestro Chitti Babu’s son, Sundar C Babu has soared pretty high in the background score – the use of Shankar Mahadevan’s Sambo Siva Sambo is mesmerizing. This is indeed a riveting film – a film that arrests you with its imagination and takes a huge leaf out of K. Balachander’s school of film making that doesn’t allow you to predict what will happen next. That trait is Nadodigal’s biggest strength.
As for its comparisons with Sasikumar’s directorial debut, Subramaniyapuram, I personally find this film far superior and more focused. There’s hardly anything common beyond Sasikumar’s beard and the rooted-in-Tier-3-town persona. I shudder when I hear plans of remaking this film in Telugu and Hindi – it’s an unnecessary ritual and without the inherent understanding and exposure to the local milieu of the state – which I’m not sure if it is similar to even a neighboring state like Andhra Pradesh – could just fall flat.
Sasikumar, first with his debut, then his production (Pasanga) and now with Nadodigal, seems to have grasped the nuance of what is missing in Tamil cinema, which was rudderlessly rooting for mindless hero worship and gimmickry. There is one metro town in Tamil Nadu and just a handful of Tier 2 towns. The target audience just exploded with Sasikumar taking his themes from every other Tier 3 town in the state – hats off to his vision and for finally creating the new wave that Tamil cinema has been yearning for. His is not the perfect brand of cinema, but it’s so real and heartfelt that you feel the famous Namakkal heat on your skin and the dust in your lungs. Not to forget the fact that the emotions scripted are significantly more genuine than what other, so-called new wave film makers like Bala have got down to peddling, after a mighty start.
Keywords: Sasikumar, Samudhrakkani, Samudhirakani, Ananya, Abinaya, Sundar C Babu, Nadodigal
