The Netru Indru review
There is no particular mystery to Netru Indru. It’s quite straightforward, really. The tale is built around a collection of scenes that happened netru, followed by the ones that take place indru. A task force is sent to capture a smuggler,who looks and sounds just like Veerappan, and shown in parallel is the story of Thamini (Manochitra) who is desperate for a ride to the Kabini checkpoint. These two routines come together at some point. But to get to that, we’re forced to sit through two hours of glamourous numbers, sexual innuendo and belly flashing.
Too much belly flashing.
The task force consists of a bumbling captain with a bad eyesight, an alcoholic, and to top it all, a sex addict. Throw in two other weird guys, and we get the ‘dream team’ that’s going to catch a hardened convict. When the captain of the team decides to scale a particularly dangerous looking hill because he spots some underwear drying on top, we realise that Netru Indru is in no way related to the Veerappan story. And, we’re quite thankful for that.
And then, the women in the movie. The girls parade around in provocative clothing in cold locales; and both lead actresses (Manochitra and Arundhathi) compensate for their long fake eyelashes with some short dresses. The Malayali hotel owner dresses in a low cut blouse and a dangerously low on the hips veshti; and dances for a good five minutes to the tune of Nethu Raathiri Yamma. Special mention to the scene where Manochitra opens the door in a pink towel and hands the same towel over to her driver (Vimal) who promptly sniffs it and sighs. To nobody’s surprise, they end up together later.
Recommended
It’s incredibly difficult to point out where exactly the film goes awry. Was it during the scene where actor Vimal pays the sex-worker? Discount illaiya? he asks. Or is it the moment when the task force guys play spin-the-bottle to choose who sleeps with the forest girl first? But we think it’s probably during that waterfall scene when Akila tries to swim, but ‘unintentionally’ gets out of her own clothes instead. And it could also be during those good forty minutes when the actress walks around in a tatty old undershirt.
While Netru Indru begins as a way of telling people about the complex decisions that change the course of a man’s life, it instead becomes a two-hour long message on how not to treat the women in your life.
You have been warned.
PS: Actors Prasanna and Richard are in this movie. Silambarasan has rendered a gaana song.
PPS : No, they don’t really make a difference.