Tamil films often find the need to be morally correct. The killer always has a reason to kill. The vigilante always has a backstory for committing the crime (Arjun in Gentlemen, Vikram in Anniyan, or Vijay in Mersal). The bad guys will always die at the end. If they don't, then they too will have a backstory justifying their bad behaviors.
Ajay Gnanamuthu, the director of the hugely successful Demonte Colony comes back with his second, this time with Nayanthara, Atharva and Anurag Kashyap in the lead.
Immaika Nodigal is essential your typical crime thriller. There's a 'psychotic son of a bitch' as Nayan says it, and he is roaming around the city (Bangalore), and a smart CBI officer, Anjali is hell-bent on catching him before he hits his next target. The subplot of the story includes Atharva and his love interest (Rashi Khanna) who is dealing with their own love story (and the breakup).
Firstly, the inclusion of Nayanthara as the lead CBI officer is a masterstroke. It's the season of celebrating feminism in movies, and the casting makes a whole lot of difference to a genre that Tamil cinema has seen way too many times before in the past. Nayanthara looks her part as a suave officer and special mention to her costume and hair stylist. Her curls and her leather jacket adds so much depth in making her role look believable.
The second masterstroke proves to be the casting of Anurag Kashyap. The maverick Bollywood director (Gangs of Wasseypur) makes his Tamil debut and doesn't disappoint. In a role originally written for Gautham Menon (what a casting that would have been as well), Anurag makes the role of a psychotic villain menacing and deadly - more importantly scary. His eyes and physique genuinely make you feel like he could kill someone with a single punch.
Atharva on the other hand, with his love story, is what makes Immaika Nodigal a rather draggy affair.
Ajay certainly has a cat and mouse crime thriller plot that is worth even for a Netflix series - but the misfitting love angle (purely a commercial move) proves to be the dampener in the proceedings. Would the movie be any different without Atharva and Rashi Khanna? No, it wouldn't have.
That being said, Atharva does perform well in the role that he is given. Watch out for the love proposal scene between him and Rashi. Atharva is clearly one of the best looking heroes we currently have in Tamil cinema and is yet to be used to his fullest potential.
Coming back to the idea of being morally correct, here's where Imaikka Nodigal fails to make use of its interesting premise. Without giving much of the spoilers away, Ajay shows us a very shocking plot twist towards the end of the movie, indicating that the true serial killer (on top of Anurag). The movie should have just ended there.
BUT...
Ajay goes on to explain a very unnecessary backstory to justify the intentions behind the killing. Also, Anurag Kashyap also gets a pretty weak backstory to explain the reasoning behind his own killing, which also doesn't help the screenplay.
Take Spyder, the movie directed by A.R Murugadoss (incidentally Ajay Gnanamuthu's mentor) for example. Sudalai (played by S.J Suryah) is a similar psycho killer to Anurag's character. Sudalai's backstory is so intense (he was born in a graveyard and the wailing of people when someone dies arouses him) that we buy into the premise of why he starts killing.
Unfortunately, Anurag's backstory and the reason why he starts killing isn't really the most convincing. As an audience, you wonder whether you would have done the same. The moment that happens in a movie, you get unfortunately disconnected.
The movie also shows Vijay Sethupathi, who in his very short cameo proves why he is easily one of the best actors in the country at the moment. His dialogue delivery in the marriage scene is brilliant. How can a man be this good with and without facial hair? Special mention also needs to be given to HipHop Tamizha's background score which is usually the biggest factor in elevating the scenes. The same cant' be said about the songs, but then the movie never really needed these songs in the first place.
All said and done, Imaikka Nodigal is another well-made film by Ajay. It's a tough job balancing a crime thriller between two very good lead and keeping the suspense until the very end, and one could not but wonder whether the story would have made a bigger impact if it was in a format of a series? (Netflix, are you listening?)
There's definitely been compromising done by including the love angle and the songs, but if this compromisation allows us to start writing Netflix worthy crime thrillers, then, by all means, it should be encouraged."Imaikka Nodigal"... An exciting premise, but could have been so much more.
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