Nedunchaalai

His debut film Sillunu Oru Kaadhal was largely a middling effort remembered mostly for AR Rahman's songs but with Nedunchalai, Krishna shows that the unevenness of that film could have been a case of nerves of a first-time director working with a star. For, this film is certainly a surefooted effort that shows that this director can tell an engaging tale. Like his debut film, this one too is a wistful journey of a character — if it was a man's longing for a lover in the earlier film, this one is about a man's regret over his action.

The setting is the mid eighties and the plot revolves around a ruffian who is a better man than whom he seems to be, an always fashionable conceit in Tamil cinema. Here, it is Tarpaulin Murugan (Aari), a highway robber, who steals from lorries that ply on the highway near Periyakulam. He is so skillful that the lorry owners re-route their vehicles to go through a newly constructed highway, which becomes beneficial for Manga ( Shivada), a young and enterprising dhaba owner. Meanwhile, the place gets a new cop, Masanimuthu (Prashant Narayanan), who is as crooked as they come — the kind of cop who will smoke ganja while on duty, demand servitude from a black marketer, Maatu Sekar (Salim Kumar), in exchange for his protection and even plan a robbery.

He lusts after Manga and tries to fuel a tiff between her and Murugan, who loathes him completely, for his benefit. But Murugan double crosses him, and saves Manga from dishonour and this makes her fall for him. This enrages Masanimuthu, who plots his revenge by making Murugan the scapegoat in a robbery involving the goods of a fearful big shot.

From the characterization of the hero (right down to his costumes) to the tragic climax, the shadow of Ameer's Paruthiveeran looms large on Nedunchalai, and this is both its strength and weakness. Hewing to the template of that film (a bold girl falling in love with a ruffian and trying to lead him away from his life of crime), with a dash of...