Imaikkaa Nodigal Tamil Movie
Director Ajay Gnanamuthu who made a mark with "Demonte Colony" a couple of years back, has come up with "Imaikka Nodigal", a psycho-thriller. The genre, though has been heavily influenced by Hollywood, the increasing crime rate in India calls for a movie that is firmly "Indian" in nature.
With that, I mean that it should explore certain elements that are culture specific. Though Bollywood has managed to make a few strides in recent times, Kollywood is yet to come up with an authentic psycho-thriller that very much cries "Tamil", especially in recent times. Upon racking my brain, a few good psycho thrillers cross my mind - "Sigappu Rojakkal", "Aalavandhan" and "Vettaiyaadu Vilaiyaadu" (incidentally all happen to be Kamal Haasan films).
Back to "Imaikka Nodigal": A psycho serial killer, Rudhra (Anurag Kashyap) is on a killing spree, capturing wealthy kids and bleeding them to death, even after the requested ransom gets paid off. CBI officer Anjali (Nayanthara) is tasked to pin him down. Rudhra makes sure to fail Anjali in all her attempts. Then, Rudra targets her brother Arjun (Atharva) and his girlfriend. Finally, the reason for him to go after officer Anjali gets revealed with an unexpected twist.
The movie had a good, engaging script. That too with a duration of just under 3 hours, it's quite a task these days to keep the attention span of the audience intact. On that front, the director has scored handsomely. However, there are quite a few problem areas as well. Firstly, this one is an urban thriller, and there is a lack of a native element. The characters are either rich or upper middle class. So, the story happening in Bangalore or Birmingham doesn't make a difference.
Secondly, the movie had some loose ends. Notably, the critical flashback at the fag end left some questions unanswered and called for some logic. Also, the chases, Atharva fighting the cops single-handedly and escaping through a well-guarded hospital with just an operation mask was masala at its best. Finally, the romance between Atharva and Rashi Khanna was very much run-of-the-mill and needed some trimming, especially the songs.
Anurag Kashyap as the psycho killer was top notch. His cool head and "don't care" attitude paid off handsomely. The Bollywood villains can pick a thread from him on the lip sync. Even after a hard look, I rarely came across a portion where his lip sync failed - great job!
Nayanthara as the iron lady was among the thick of things and served as the anchor for the other cast. Vijay Sethupathi in a guest appearance made his presence firmly felt and underplayed it as beautifully as he could. His portion was something of a high for the overall feel of the movie.
Hip-hop Tamizha's music and BGM augured well for the proceedings. Notably, the thrills and chase sequences came along pretty well. Editing and cinematography contributed a good deal for the film to attain its craft that is oriented more towards the urban crowd.
The movie is a solid thriller that dishes out the right amount of twists and turns along the way with some decent action. However, the screenplay with its soggy logic at times lets the movie down quite a bit. Nevertheless, it can be watched once for the engaging thrills, cast and their performance that came along quite well!
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