Nenjirukkum Varai 2006

(The story of 2 lovers and the ultimate sacrifice. All images source: www.indiaglitz.com)

Nenjirukkum Varai had all the right ingredients to become a blockbuster if not for a sloppy directorship.

This movie was directed by Tamil actor, Vijay’s father, SA Chandrasekhar. Narain who shined in Mysskin’s Chithram Pesuthadi and later in Anjathey does it again – fine acting with plenty of realism. Being the ordinary guy with unshaven face and tense look, Narain worked wonders at those crucial scenes. I like the part when he confronts the policeman in charge after the screw-up to kill Ganesh. Another part that he excelled was when at the last few moments before he commits suicide for the girl that he loves.

The Plot

Ganesh (Narain) is a slum boy who drives an auto to support his family. Bhuvana (Deepa) is the neglected daughter of a rich man and is in search of true love. Bhuvana is drawn to Ganesh’s honesty and good heart. As expected, both fell in love and Bhuvana leaves her rich family to be with Ganesh in the slum. Bhuvana’s father tries to buy over Ganesh but is turned down. He then disowns Bhuvana and leaves her to be with Ganesh.

One day, whilst at the beach, Bhuvana would be hit by a lorry and rushed to the hospital. There the doctors inform Ganesh that Bhuvana need to undergo a heart transplant and the cost of the operation is Rs10 million. Ganesh manages to salvage some part of the money but is still short. He then tries to ask the hospital’s MD for some lenience on the payment but instead gets arrested by the police and in rage, the MD orders the discharge of Bhuvana without the operation.

Ganesh, having no other choice, locks the hospital’s emergency room and take a senior doctor (played by Nasser) and others in the emergency room as hostage. The police gets involves and tries several ideas (including sending a policeman to kill Ganesh) to resolve the hostage situation. Over the time, the people in the emergency room understand the reason behind Ganesh’s act and support him. The hospital agrees for the operation but despite sending a “S.O.S” to other hospitals, no heart for transplant is available and Bhuvana’s lifeline slips away. Ganesh in the end decides to take his own life and donates his heart to Bhuvana.

The holes in the plot

Despite setting the right premise, the director basically screwed up the storyline and much of it was way too glaring during the second part of the movie when Ganesh locks up and takes the people in the emergency ward hostage. Whilst Narain started to excel from here onwards with his fine acting, the director on the other hand continued with basic mistakes.

One review concluded:-

Had the sequences fallen logically in place in the second half, the film would have struck a vibrant chord in the viewers hearts. They fall so pat in place sometimes. Despite this, there is no denying that when you leave the theatre, you leave with a heavy heart and a different perception of love

Here are some of the more glaring ones:-

• Why heart transplant when Bhuvana is seriously injured in a motor accident and not in an heart attack (Bhuvana was shown with a large bandage to the head)?
• Even before a suitable heart is found, Bhuvana is rushed to the operating theatre – shouldn’t they wait before they do these things?
• In hostage situation, one expects the police’s presence to be very heavy and sharpshooters on the rooftop. In this movie, sharpshooters were missing – giving plenty of time for Ganesh to be standing uncovered, challenging the hospital MD and the police.
• The decision to send one policeman through the ventilation to kill Ganesh – looks smart on paper but in the movie, one don’t understand why the policeman aims the gun at Ganesh but takes a long to pull the trigger (eventually Ganesh was saved when a small girl saw the policeman and alerts Ganesh, duh!)
• Ganesh destroys all phones and mobile phones right at the beginning of the hostage situation (the discovery of a walkie talkie was just a coincidence) – then how he expects to communicate with the “outside world” on his demands?
• At the beginning of the hostage situation, Ganesh places himself at the middle whilst being surrounded by the hostage. In real sense, the hostage taker would have placed the hostages on a place where he can see them but the hostage are not near enough to do something stupid
• I did not see the hostage given food and drink during the ordeal (but let’s assume, this has been covered somewhere)
• There has to be one ‘feel happy” song during the tense moments – talk about wrong timing here

I dare say that the movie would have turned better if it was given to other better directors to direct it (like Mysskin). If those illogical scenes were taken out, Nenjirukkum Varai would not been as bad as it was directed to be. SA Chandrasekhar should stick to do what he knows best – being a producer.

Final say

The plus points: Narain, background music and storyline

The negative points: Bad directorship, unnecessary songs sequences