Ennamo Nadakkudhu

It is not often that we get to be pleasantly surprised by a film and Yennamo Nadakkudhu is the surprise of the season. It is directed by a debutant director and features no A-list stars, but still keeps you hooked from start to finish. The film opens with the hero being battered almost to death by goons who demand something from him. And, the entire first half tells us what happened till that point in gripping fashion. Generally, thrillers tend to lose some bit of the tension after the revelation but this film manages to keep you on the edge of the seat till its climax and it is certainly its biggest triumph.

The plot revolves around Vijay, a lower middle class guy, who falls in love with Madhumitha, a nurse with plans to go to Canada for her higher studies. Her father borrows a huge sum from a loan shark for the same but it is only latter that he realizes that the agency which promised to take his daughter abroad is a racket. Viji decides to repay the amount to save Madhu and seeks help from Uthaman, a lawyer who works for Burma, a gangster and a rising politician. They use Viji for their elaborate scam, which involves lending out money deposited in a bank and making a profit out of the interest. All that Viji has to do is take the money and distribute it to the various middle men. However, Viji is tricked en route and the money is stolen. Burma is in a fix and thinks Viji has cheated him but he goes into a coma after being beaten up by Burma's henchmen. Where did the money go and who has stolen it?

There is a lot to like in Yennamo Nadakkudhu and first and foremost among these is the script. The film is tautly written with one scene leading into another or informing the other so that there is hardly a wasted moment. We have seen films where a young man gets caught in a power struggle between two powerful individuals, and yet, this film manages to feel fresh.

Even the characters are familiar and still feel new to some extent. At first glance, Viji seems li...