Naan Rajavaaga Pogiren Review – Impressive in Parts

by Bharath Vijayakumar

Close on the heels of Udhayam, another former assistant of Vettri Maaran makes his debut through NRP. Backed by a strong technical team of Music Director GVP and cameraman Velraj, has the debutant filmmaker delivered the goods? Read on to find.

Plot

Jeeva(Nakul) lives with his mother in the hills of Himachal Pradesh. When he comes to know that there is a look alike of him by the name Raja in Chennai his curiosity drives him in search of Raja. In this journey he is accompanied by Reema (Avani Modi) a close friend of Raja. Through her he comes to know about Raja and also his love for Valli (Chandini Tamilarasan). When they come to Chennai they realize that Raja and Valli are missing and a series of unfortunate events has happened to them.  What happened to Raja and who actually is Jeeva, is the climax.

Cast

Nakul has the screen presence of the angry young man who is ready to take on the baddies. He does show reasonable variation between Raja and Jeeva. If he lands up in the right project his career could see a rapid upswing. Probably ‘Vallinam’ might do the trick. Chandni as the socially conscious youngster comes up with a good performance. Avani Modi does manage to showcase the emotions required. But her lip sync goes haywire. Directors A.Venkatesh and Gaurav (Thoonganagaram) who play the baddies don’t have much to do except going around in SUVs in search of the hero.

Music and Technical Crew

G.V.Prakash has come up with adequate songs. But there is no single number that probably stays with you. Velraj’s camera captures beautifully the hill station in the initial sequences. Vettri Maaran has penned the dialogues for NRP.

NRP has a solid storyline with a twist at the end that not everybody can see coming. But it somehow ends up as a product that delivers little compared to what it had promised. The movie tends to drag at places and a crisper screenplay should have helped. The mandatory crude item number does no good to the pace of the movie. The director has tried to pack in too many things. The track about the genetically modified crops and their negative social impact is certainly laudable. But that does not stay with you and the movie ends up like a routine revenge drama. Portraying the villain and their henchmen as a cruel lot is fine. But then what about their intelligence quotient? Will such powerful villains be roaming around in the streets and get beaten up by the hero now and then.

Bottomline

NRP starts off interestingly, loses steam often and comes up with a neat twist towards the climax. It is definitely watchable. But not a must watch either.

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