Cast: Sarathkumar, Prakash Raj, Radhika, Cheran, Prasanna.
Director: Shaheed Khader.
Chennaiyil
Oru Naal is the remake of the Super Hit Malayalam movie Traffic which was directed
by Rajesh Pillai, inspired by true events that happened in Chennai some years
earlier.
It
is a casting coup of sorts with a lot of prominent faces from the Tamil
Industry like Sarathkumar, Cheran, Prakash Raj, Prasanna, Radhika, Vijayakumar,
Jayaprakash, Lakshmi, Mallika, Ineya,....it’s a big list! But the refreshing and
good thing about Chennaiyil Oru Naal is that it cannot be termed as the film
starring any of the above actors. Chennaiyil Oru Naal is a film where the
screenplay is the hero, heroine and the villain. All the above actors and the
rest of the cast just support the screenplay by acting out their parts.
The
original screenplay written by Bobby-Sanjay has been retained. But even the
dialogues(though written by Ajayan Bala) are almost the same as in Malayalam.
The fabulous multi – layered screenplay which must be the first of it’s kind
for the Tamil audience is sure to be appreciated.
Though
not on par with Rajesh Pillai, director Shaheed Khadar has done a fairly good
job in trying to retain the essence of Traffic and most of the time he actually
succeeds in it. But having watched the original, it’s a bit hard to overlook
the fact that the masala element creeps in at some scenes.
Coming
to performances it’s a job well done by most of the cast except for a few scenes
involving Prasanna, the newcomers and the junior artists. When certain scenes
involving Prakash Raj are really funny, others involving Lakshmi, Jayaprakash
and Radhika are touching.
But
what really works for the film is the portrayal of wide ranging characters having
different dreams about their lives with conviction without causing any
deceleration of the tempo.
Iam
giving a 3.25/5 for Chennaiyil Oru Naal. Get ready for a mixture of wide
ranging emotions along with some thrill.
Rating
Scale (Out of 5)
Less
than 2
-
Unwatchable.
2
to 2.25
-
Below average.
2.5
to 2.75 -
Average.
3 to
3.25 -
Good.
3.5 to
3.75 -
Really Good.
4 to
4.25 -
Great.
4.5 and
above -
Extraordinary.
