NADUVULA KONJAM PAKKATHA KAANOM MOVIE REVIEW

Everyone has memories, sweet and hard. Some hard memories remain painful forever, and some brings a smile or even laughter when looked back. Naduvula Konjam Pakkatha Kaanom (NKPK) is one such difficult memory that makes everyone roll on the floor and laugh when narrated. This is a true story of four friends Prem Kumar, Saras, Bagavathy and Balaji.

Balaji Tharaneetharan makes an entry into the film industry as a director with this film. NKPK is an adaptation of a real incident involving himself, cinematographer Prem Kumar and two of their friends, Saras and Bagavathy. Prem Kumar has wielded the camera for the film, while Vijay Sethupathy of Pizza fame has portrayed his role. The original Bagavathy (aka Bucks) appears as himself in the film, Rajkumar has taken up the role of Balaji (aka Bajji) and Vigneshwaran plays Saras. Gayathri of 18 Vayasu fame plays Dhanalakshmi, the love interest of Prem.    

The story revolves around Prem and his friends. Prem’s marriage is set to happen in two days and to loosen up from the pressure, he goes out to play cricket along with his three buddies. He falls down while playing, gets hit on his head and temporarily loses his recent memories (things that happened in the last year). Unfortunately he loses the memory of his fiancée, Dhanalakshmi (Gayathri) too. It’s now up to the three friends to get Prem married to his forgotten girlfriend, without letting anyone (including the girlfriend) know about the accident that happened to him. Will the marriage happen peacefully and will Prem regain his memory? Watch NKPK on big screens.     

This is a very serious film, but it is almost impossible to control the laughter, looking at the unfortunate happenings. It is a brilliant technique to introduce the four protagonists and their lives through the title song, ‘Excuse Me Sir’. All the four central characters have done a brilliant job, especially Vigneshwaran and Rajkumar. The panic and fear, when Prem loses his memory has been beautifully portrayed by the three friends. Especially Bajji’s reactions and Bucks’ absurd advices are hilarious to the core. Vijay Sethupathy is very convincing as a guy with memory loss, with his ever pondering looks and the character of Saras is a pretty serious and intense one and Raj Kumar fits the bill perfectly. Gayathri makes a short appearance, but does well.

The greatest positives in the film are Bajji’s petrified reactions, Bucks’ authoritativeness, funny dialogues, unexpected turn of events and shocking memories of Prem that sits in place of those forgotten. The director has maintained the suspense and managed to keep the audience thrilled through the end. With just one word, ‘Ennachu’, the director brings out chuckles, exasperation and sorrow from the audience.

Ved Shankar, a product of AR Rahman’s music school, has delivered the songs for the film and Siddharth Vipin has done the background scores. The latter’s naughty and playful tunes during the serious scenes trigger laughter. But, it was unfortunate that none of the tracks of Ved Shankar, other than ‘Excuse Me Sir’ and Omelette Potta were added in the film.

The saloon scene is a cracker and the hairstylist does a brilliant job. The Schindler’s list style finish, where the real characters come on screen was pretty touching too, though it creates a documentary feel.

Cinematographer Prem Kumar’s close ups and some stagnant shots prove very appropriate in capturing the emotions perfectly. His work, especially the low angle tights, too contributes to the facetiousness of the film.

The film moves very slow, but it is understandably the nature of the story. Monotony breaks in when Prem keeps repeating the same dialogues. Since that is exactly what happened it is not a grave mistake too. But the sound design could have been taken care of. In some places the BGMs are too loud that the dialogues go unheard.

On the whole, this frightening experience of the four friends is a roll-on-the-floor-and-laugh experience for the audience. The male populace can relate to the story more and will agree with the reactions and the behavior of the protagonists.

Off the record, people say that it is immoral and inhuman to laugh at others hardship, but Naduvula Konjam Pakkatha Kaanom doesn’t fall under that category. So laugh your heart out!