Nammal Thammil Malayalam Movie

Feature Film | 2009
Critics:
Audience:
What do you say of a film that thrives on one misunderstanding after another to concoct a story that is as far-fetched as it can get? If half of these miserable little mix-ups are cut off, the film would barely qualify for feature-length.
Mar 28, 2009 By Veeyen


Nammal Thammil is all mindless drivel, that lacks any substance or soul. An instance of shamelessly awful screenwriting burdened with happenstance, this is a silly, manipulative melodrama that's already on its way out.


Vicky (Prithviraj) is the College Union Chairman whose life revolves around Anu (Geethu Mohandas), the lass with the acid tongue. Hundreds of squabbles later, they are on the verge of a split, when Johnny (Indrajith) flies in from Delhi into the campus and almost straight into Anu's heart.


It doesn't really matter that the film looks a bit aged and talks of Kal Ho Na Ho as a flick that hit the cine halls last week. I could probably overlook those cell phones that resemble oddly colored pencil boxes as well. What matters though is the lame screenplay that would fall apart on any screen across the world, at any given moment of time. 2004 or 2009, it has been destined to be a debacle.


Raw and sloppy in all possible senses of these terms, Nammal Thammil provides an unacceptable showcase for Pritviraj, who trudges back to his prehistrionic days. What do you say of a film that thrives on one misunderstanding after another to concoct a story that is as far-fetched as it can get? If half of these miserable little mix-ups are cut off, the film would barely qualify for feature-length.


Looking at one's watch so often during a movie isn't a good sign, I hear. Within fifteen minutes of this inconsistent baloney, I knew I'd stumbled upon an impending tragedy. It isn't every day that you cook up a fight with some adversary in college only to realize that he's your brother! That's the way things are in this film. Take it or leave it.


Being set on a campus, Nammal Thammil isn't exactly bubblegum material either. The campus looks bizarre, so does the premise and the people, topping it all up with an extraordinarily irksome Principal (Jagathy Sreekumar) who keeps popping something into his mouth.


A teen trifle would be too hefty an expression to describe Viji Thampi's film. With all those wild coincidences and silly lapses of logic, it can't dream even of an illusion of wholesomeness. It lacks the conviction to deliver a genuine point, and eventually winds up saying nothing.


For the lead actor, this is the wrong release at the wrong time. In a vital phase in the actor's career when he is all smoothly scheduled to take the big leap, along comes a film that would have been best left rotting away somewhere, than to cook up an embarrassment. Geethu is LOUD, in an unbelievably hoarse, throaty and gruff manner.


Between you and me, no secrets. Between you and me, flee for your life.


Veeyen

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