Imaikkaa Nodigal

Imaikkaa Nodigal feels like a movie that disrespected its antagonist. The film’s most solid element is its antagonist and by diluting the plot towards the end and thus softening the intricacy Imaikkaa Nodigal from Ajay Gnanamuthu falls into the typical category. The film has interesting hooks to grab your attention, but what comes after those catchy plot points ends up being ordinary making the screenplay look like a bloated one.

Anjali is a CBI officer who is behind this serial killer named Rudra. She closes the case by finding Rudra, but a few years later Rudra bounces back saying Anjali killed the wrong guy and threatens to kill more, making it an open challenge for Anjali. How this cat and mouse game becomes exciting when Anjali’s brother Arjun also gets dragged into the plot is what Imaikkaa Nodigal telling us.

The way this movie has built its villain is truly impressive. But what annoys you is the awkward mix of the two tracks in one of which you have Nayanthara and Anurag Kashyap and the other that has Atharvaa. The character of Arjun played by Atharvaa has this story which looks totally alien to the texture of this movie. His character is a mix of GV Prakash characters and some of the mediocre Vijay characters. That “Virgin Pasanga Saavam” phase of Arjun is simply annoying and it almost nullifies the thrilling bit in the other narrative. Gnanamuthu introduces subplots to regularly decelerate the movie. The series of twists in the second half sort of diminishes the charm the script had till that point.

Imaikkaa Nodigal is slightly more inclined towards using the female superstar aspect of Nayanthara, unlike a Kolamavu Kokila that utilizes her acting chops as well. Even if you look at the screen time, Nayanthara has got very minimal space to be memorable. Atharvaa is trying to act like a tough guy but the kind of smoldering intensity he tries to depict isn’t really giving the exact feel. Anurag Kashyap for me was the best part of the film and his casting was also a smart decision. If you have seen his interviews, there is a kind of expressive craziness in his eyes and Ajay Gnanamuthu channelizes that energy neatly to shape this demon of a character. Raashi Khanna gets a role that just focuses on her beauty aspect and Vijay Sethupathi appears in a cameo role.

Ajay Gnanamuthu has previously crafted Demonte Colony. When it comes to Imaikkaa Nodigal you can sense a sort of commercialization pressure affecting his making. Especially, the Atharvaa portions where a needless emphasis is given for the romance, breakup and to an extent the action. It should have been a Nayanthara vs Anurag Kashyap thriller, but it ended up being a bit clumsy. And Gnanamuthu can’t really hold some of the twists as some of us will be surely able to sense a certain foul play in scenes that gets revisited later. The script initially had a respect towards the audiences’ intelligence, but towards the end, it was losing the grip. RD Rajasekhar’s frames were good. The music was just okay.

If they can edit out a lot of portions featuring Atharvaa’s character from this movie, Imaikkaa Nodigal would look a bit tidier. With a run time of around 170 minutes (that’s pretty much 3 hours considering interval), this Nayanthara movie is a script that had the potential but got overblown.

Rating: 2.5/5