Naduvula Konjam Pakkatha Kaanom (2012)

English translation: Few pages are missing in between
Director: Balaji Tharaneetharan
Story: Balaji Tharaneetharan
Cast: Vijay Sethupathi, Gayathrie Shankar 
Music: Ved Shankar, Siddarth Vipin
Time: 161 minutes
Bottom-line: A terrific family entertainer

   Another new director makes a mark, as Balaji Tharaneetharan provides a whole new experience in his comedy entertainer Naduvula Konjam Pakkatha Kaanom. While I don’t consider this film to be such a remarkable comedy film, several other critics have called it the comedy of the year. No duets, no fight scenes, just pure comedy is what you should expect in this film.

Prem Kumar (Sethupathi) is getting married to his lover Dhanalakshmi (Gayathrie), in the next couple of days. He tries to play cricket with his friends Saras (Vigneswaran), Bhagavathi (Bagavathi Perumal) and Balaji (Balaji). As he attempts to take a catch, he falls backward and hits himself on the head. Everything seems alright, but later that day, Prem’s friends find out that he has developed short term memory loss. Prem has forgotten a full year of his life, so he recognizes his friends, but does not have a clue about his marriage. The doctor says he can recover anytime. The stunts and drama Prem’s friends do till the wedding makes all the viewers laugh their hearts out.

In this poster, you can see that Saras (left),
Bhagavathi (third from left) and Balaji (right)
are worried about what to do, while Prem (second
from left) is without a care in the world.

While Ghajini portrayed short term memory loss in a serious manner, Naduvula Konjam Pakkatha Kaanom takes a more laughable route to show this defect. With memorable dialogues, especially Vijay Sethupathi’s “Enna Aachu? Cricket Vilaiyadinom…” (What happened? We played cricket…) and his “Paa… yaaruda indha ponnu?” (My God! Who’s this girl?) this film has almost completely washed out Ghajini’s fan following. The dialogue that took the actor two months to memorize can now be heard from almost any person who has watched this film.

The story is a very simple one. It is supposedly based on a true story. Photographer Prem Kumar suffered temporary memory loss, and this gave Balaji the idea (all this is shown during the closing credits). Of course, a simple fall on the head cannot possible cause a grown man short term memory loss, but these are some things you have to ignore when watching the film. The film also some other unrealistic stuff. For example, Saras tells the reason why Prem always listens to him, and I found that very absurd. The main thing that drives the film is the dialogue “Enna Aachu?” which Sethupathi says, and the fact that this dialogue comes over 15 times in the film is both the advantage and disadvantage of the film. The dialogue is shown in different scenarios, with different background music each time.

Gayathrie as Dhanalakshmi

When you first hear the dialogue, you will surely laugh. You will laugh louder when he says the dialogue for the second and third times, because now you realize that he has memory loss, and that he is not going to say anything else. Moreover, his friends’ reaction when he says this dialogue over and over again is excellent. First, they are shocked beyond description. After that, they put on a guilty look on their faces whenever he says that dialogue in public, as they are the reason behind it.

However, the same dialogue is also a negative factor. After hearing it some 5-6 times, I felt bored of the hearing the same thing. The comic tension wasn’t quite there. But the other famous dialogues: “Ennadhu? Sivaji sethutaara??” (What? Sivaji is no more??) and other ones make us laugh once again. The reception scene is considered one of the funniest in the film, but here, again, the repeated dialogue is funny at the beginning, but becomes slightly boring later on.

Another still from the film. Prem (Sethupathi) in the red shirt,
Saras, played by Vigneshwaran (wearing spectacles), Bhagavathi
(brown shirt) played by Bhagavathi, and Balaji, played
by Balaji.

The acting is very much realistic and natural, whether it is good or not. When new actors come on the stage, only a few can act a new type of role. This is the main reason why many Tamil films made by new directors (including the ones whose reviews I have written) contain a simple story with normal characters and settings. Sethupathi’s dialogues and his expression when he says the dialogues over and over again are exactly the same, even if the settings change. I must appreciate him, as he has managed to say the exact same thing with the exact same look on his face, with the pauses and voice modulation in the exact same places. His friends’ expressions when they hear Prem saying the same thing repeatedly is also brilliant.

To conclude, Balaji Tharaneetharan provides a highly entertaining comedy film in his debut Naduvula Konjam Pakkatha Kaanom. With natural acting, some very laughable and memorable dialogues and with enough jokes to keep the film in your memory for a long time to come, this film ticks all the ingredients of a comedy film; but, as I said, some factors act as advantages to some and as disadvantages to others.

My Rating: 3.5/5