Take a few scenes from Sundar C, Ezhil and Ponram’s films. Shuffle them around in random order. Substitute the wastrel protagonist and his sidekick with MaKaPa Anand and Karunakaran. Add fart jokes every 10 minutes. Now you have Kamran’s Navarasa Thilagam. Navarasa Thilagam is the newest member of the club of absolutely pointless films, which like to masquerade under the ‘only entertainment’ tag.
*****
In some bright future, filmmakers might understand that the audience is tired of stories where unemployment is the hero’s claim to fame. Tired of seeing an educated, sensible woman falling in love with him, on the strength of his ‘persuasive’, creepy advances. Impressed that his only ambition in life is to have 16 (the exact number) babies with her. Tired of watching overweight men being stereotyped as incompetent and unintelligent.
*****
Today we have Moorthy (MaKaPa Anand), the vetti guy who squanders his father’s wealth on unsuccessful business ventures. People are in jail because of him. His trusted aide, Alangaram (Karunakaran), helps him with all this. In perhaps the most clichéd ‘heroine introduction’ scene possible, he spots Chitra (Srushti Dange). Spots her waving her hand outside a train’s window, cranes his neck to get a good look at her, and BAM! He has already foreseen a future with Chitra and their 16 children.
How he manages to overcome the completely predictable odds and persuasively convinces their families to agree to their marriage is the story of Navarasa Thilagam. Enthralling, indeed.
*****
Recommended
Seven years have passed since the trend of bromance films began, with Siva Manasula Shakthi in 2009. Countless films have been made in this genre. Which leaves us scraping the barrel in our quest for some silver lining to Navarasa Thilagam. And yawning as we list the negatives: a redundant plot, annoying characters, and bland execution. It’s hard to laugh at the juvenile fart jokes, or the play on Sidney Sheldon as ‘Chutney’ Sheldon. Most of all, it’s hard to laugh at this joke of a film.
*****
The Navarasa Thilagam review is a Silverscreen original article. It was not paid for or commissioned by anyone associated with the movie. Silverscreen.in and its writers do not have any commercial relationship with movies that are reviewed on the site.