‘Irresistible laughter’ is a package everyone expects from these Masters of hilarious entertainers. Udhayanidhi-Santhanam teaming up with Rajesh’s long time associate Jagadeesh had indeed struck the expectation radar at the right momentum. The film is produced by Udhayanidhi Stalin’s home banner of Red Giant Movies and stars Nayantara in female lead role.
‘Nanbenda’ as the title inspired from mentor Rajesh’s film ‘Boss Engira Baskaran’, his protégé Jagadeesh borrows certain factors from him. Say for instance, the very opening scene, where a lead character is on the run for some purpose that is followed by a flashback with a funny reason behind these acts revealed during the climax. Naturally, with Rajesh crafting such narratives in ‘Boss Engira Baskaran’ and ‘Oru Kal Oru Kannadi’, one of his assistants – Ponram followed it in ‘Varuthapadatha Valibar Sangam’. In all likelihood, Nanbenda has a similar pattern with Sathya (Udhayanidhi Stalin) breaking loose from prison with some strong desires to bump off someone. Shifting few months back in time, we find him as a freewheeling guy in Tanjore. On his usual journey to meet his close friend (Santhanam) in Trichy, he falls in love with a beautiful girl (Nayantara). With everything proceeding in a much predictable manner, the twist comes the way when she reveals about her dark hidden past to him. With a conflict set as a backdrop, what actually took Sathya to the prison? Who h is actually attempt to kill? For what purpose? Tangled with such suspense, the story proceeds to the second half.
Udhayanidhi Stalin has improvised a lot on his performance graph when compared to his previous flicks. There seems to be an insatiable involvement of breathing his best into the role he has essayed. Nayantara looks pretty and focalises her strengths completely towards the expressions. Although her role might be confined to the commercial zone, she embellishes it with some perfection in expressions. Santhanam is the showstopper with his usual hilarious score. On the flip side, the ‘similarities’ we cited above turns out to be a slightest letdown. More and more resemblances in the scene delineations from Rajesh’s movies, gives an inevitable Déjà vu.
Musical score by Harris Jayaraj strikes with a ne plus ultra stroke. The background score and songs are very well composed and he can ardently thank cinematographer Balasubramaniam for offering the best visuals. In fact, Udhayanidhi and Nayantara had never looked so beauteous than this before.
If Jagadeesh and his team of writers had employed some fresh and new situations in the plot and storytelling panache, ‘Nanbenda’ would have expanded the limits of excitements among audiences than what it offers now with certain mediocrity.
