Oru Nalla Naal Pathu Solren Review - A crazy attempt that would strike a chord with those love madcap humour!

Bharath Vijayakumar

So Vijay Sethupathy kick starts his 2018 with an auspicious title. But knowing the man you can be rest assured that the film is going to be anything but an attempt to play it safe. Oru Nalla Naal Pathu Solren might or might not work for you but this type of madcap humour isn't something that you get often in Tamil cinema. Before jumping into details, there was this scene in the teaser that could have easily been made into a controversy . So the makers have made a small twist to it in the film. The dialogue remains but the names referenced to now are Kuppan and Suppan. There could have not been a better dig at the society that we live in. It is the Gods whom we fight for and protect. Nobody would bat an eyelid for the common Kuppans and Suppans!

For ONNPS to work, the most crucial aspect was to set the right pitch and the film does this particularly well. Right from the first scene there is this eccentricity that is ingrained in every character. Vijay Sethupathy does what he does best and that is remain as Vijay Sethupathy himself. While this could be seen as a negative (particularly with the frequency of his films) I have sort of started to develop a liking for this approach of his. It helps him to be a star even in non-formulaic films. It works all the more here as he seems to be having a ball. He doesn't seem to do much but his comfort is very apparent. He is making a mockery of the mass image that our stars tend to maintain and the rapturous applause that he gets for subverting this image is a sight to behold. Gautham Karthik was the surprise for me and his antics worked consistently well here. The biggest plus for the film is that every actor big or small was able to sell his/her eccentricity quite convincingly. Daniel in particular was a scream in a few scenes.

I am not very sure if the film was trying to make a social commentary but there are certain digs that it takes. Would be interesting to see if someone is able to look at this film through a different prism. But as a comedy it worked for me. I am really not sure how you could explain the humour to someone else. It is on screen and it either works or not. Take the college cultural scene for instance . It is a riot and one of the romances in the film actually blossoms at this point. Debutant Arumugakumar seems to be full of such ideas and he does translate most of them successfully on screen. If he is able to hold back a little he should be someone to watch out for. I say this because the film tends to drag towards the end and there is a sense of overindulgence. You have very good jokes and then you have these small attempts at silly humour. It is as though there was a check list to have at least one joke in each dialogue .

The cinematography is interesting. The film needs to establish the feel of a fictional world set within the realms of reality. The technical team has achieved this. The colour tones are bright but also not garish. Justin Prabhakaran manages the same with his music that is funky within the mainstream threshold.

Bottomline:

ONNPS might have issues and whether it comes together as a whole is a tricky question . But it is one crazy attempt and was a riot for me for the most part.

Rating : 3/5