VISITOR COLUMN

The biggest strength of ‘Naan Sigappu Manidhan’ is Thiru’s authentic portrayal of the protagonist – a narcoleptic, played brilliantly by the all talented Vishal.  The biggest relief is that Thiru has not used ‘Narcolepsy’ just as a crowd-pulling stunt, but has incorporated it beautifully into each and every moment of the film’s first half, with as much credibility as possible.  NSM’s first hour is exceptionally well written and gives the desired feel with the help of a wonderful background score by G.V Prakash, innovative frames of DOP Richard.M. Nathan and natural acting performances by Vishal and Lakshmi Menon.  Vishal definitely has to be commended for his repeated choice of unconventional ‘non-heroic’ roles and the pains he has taken for coming out as a ‘natural’. All those sudden falls to the ground would have sure taken a huge toll on him. Lakshmi Menon does emote well as usual.

 

 

The pre-interval scene though gritty and well-shot, seems stretched and unwarranted after a point. The entire second half, beginning with a wrong placement of a song is a catastrophe to the main plot. The way the neurally challenged ‘Vishal’ goes about planning his vengeance is totally unconvincing. The never-ending subplot of Sundar and Iniya, is an example of a ‘disaster’ within a disaster, making the script go haywire. Another speed breaker song just before the climax, and the implausibility in ‘character development’ don’t help the proceedings much. The film’s U/A certification  also appears unjustified, given the amount of violence and adult content in it.

 

 

To sum it up, ‘Naan Sigappu Manithan’ starts off promisingly with an interesting and engaging first half. but tapers down to a regular revenge tale later. You might want to give it a watch just for its portrayal of its male lead – a challenged, studious, hardworking guy, who earns his love and his job – a rarity in Tamil cinema these days!