Nimirnthu Nil Review

 Director Samthirikani after highlighting the depth of friendship and inevitability of self positive attitude in his last two films Nadodigal and Poraali respectively has taken up corruption this time. The corruption he wishes to address is not just the kickbakcs received by Government staff and politicians. He speaks about a larger debate. He endeavors to speak of the system corrupting everyone and the necessity of upholding one's personal morals.

Aravind Sivaswamy (Jayam Ravi) gets his education in an ashram school and a college associated with a Christian missionary. He grows up as a man who considers truthfulness and self discipline as most important virtues of life. Once he steps into the society as a grown up young man, he finds the entire system is corrupt and his righteousness is being mocked by everyone He decides to take on the bureaucrats whose corruptness spoils even those who wish to live a righteous life like him.

With the help of his friend (Soori), a Lawyer (Panju Subbu), a group of uncorrupt bureaucrats and a popular News anchor (Gopinath) he exposes 147 bureaucrats including a Judge and a Member of Palriament receiving bribe.

The officials facing legal charges form as a group and chalk out various plans to disprove their charge.But only if their charges are upheld in the court, there can be a change in the system as wished by Aravind. How he achieves that, forms the rest of Nimirndhu Nil.

Samuthirakani seems to have been inspired by the uprising of Student force in the nation wide protest against corruption. With that he has tried the tested path of `crusade against corruption' in his own style.

The initial scenes explaining the corruptness of the whole system is highly relatable to the common man. The idea used by the protagonist to expose the corrupt officials has also been inspired by a method already tested by some anti corruption activists in real life. But the way Samuthirakani has written and executed these ideas keeps the viewers engrossed and towards the interval the expectations about the second half reach sky high.

The use of Facebook, Twitter and Missed cal to gather support among students is enticing as it has topical relevance.

Having said this the second half falls flat in many aspects. The antagonist group is reduced to a group comprising of buffoons and rowdies. The logic behind the introduction of another Jayam Ravi's character is hardly convincing so is the easily guessable twist that happens to the character at the end.

The Protoganist speaks about the downfall of personal morals here and there but he takes on only on a few corrupt officials. Only at the climax scene, there is something that questions common man's urgency and eagerness for luxury being an indispensable part of corruption.

The director capitalizes the Tamil audience's sentiment towards Eelam Tamils issue and the common anger prevalent in Tamilnadu regarding the treatment meted out by neighboring states. This leaves us guessing the necessity to touch these issues in a film that aspires to address corruption.

Dialogues as in other Samuthirakani movies are pleasing in many scenes and audience applaud at regular intervals.

Jayam Ravi as Aravind Sivaswami succeeds in bringing the innocence, anger and smartness of the character. He is as good as usual in emotional scenes and keeps his histrionics skills in tact. But making him don the much hyped Narasimha Reddy character seems to be an outcome of the urge to make a dual role film. We come to know that the character's age is above 40 only through a dialogue that comes in the last scene in court. Adding multi linguistic skill to the character also seems to be intended to pep up heroism but it does not achieve any result because we have already seen Rajni and Kamal speaking many languages in the same film.

Sarathkumar is impressive in his cameo and it's a cakewalk for Gopinath to don a news anchor. Amala Paul does not have anything more than being the arm candy of the hero. Soori raises a few guffaws with
his one liners and probably for the first time appears in a role that offers something more than comedy.And the actor has done .justice to the role.

G.V.Prakash's re-recording is apt in most of the sequences. The songs except the first duet, appear as mere additions to the script, with most of them doing their best to dampen the pace of the script. Cinematography by M.Sukumar and M.Jeevan is adequate.

A better treatment in second half would have made much wonders. Still if you are a fan of anti corruption films, you can go for it as Samuthirkani and team surely have something new to tell you.

 Rating 2.5 / 5