Naalai

Naalai is a South Indian Tamil film released in 2006. Singapore actor Sivakumar debuted in this movie for a guest appearance.

Plot

The film starts with Justin (Richard) getting released from jail while his friend Natty (Natraj) is waiting for him. A writer who witnesses this decided to write biography on them. Justin and Nutty are friends since childhood, they first met during the death of their respective parents. Both work as henchmen to Nair (Nasser). They are his loyal servants and both are prepared to lay their lives for their master. However a sequence of events results in Nair developing mistrust and hatred on the two. He employs another youth (Aditya Srivastav) in their place and plans to bump them off. Eventually Justin ends up in prison and Nattu loses his leg thanks to Nair's plans. After three years (when Justin completes his jail term ), Justin along with Nattu decides to stay away from violence and lead a peaceful life. Charu (Madhumitha), a girl next door falls in love with Justin and both decide to marry. Meanwhile a reformed Nair seeks apology to both Nattu and Justin before his death. However when things go smooth in their lives, a previous enmity leaves Nair's henchmen making an attempt on Justin's life which eventually claims the life of Charu. In the climax, Justin stabs Aditya while Justin also gets stabbed and dies. The film ends with Natty carrying Justin, both jump into sea and die.

Cast

• Richard Rishi as Justin
• Natarajan Subramaniam as Natty
• Madhumitha as Charu
• Nassar as Nair
• Mahanadhi Shankar
• Sembi as Bose
• Suja Varunee
• Aditya Srivastav
• Bose Venkat
• Nirosha
• Manobala
• Kadhal Dhandapani

Production

The film has been produced by internationally renowned documentary filmmaker and cinematographer S. Nallamuthu. The story has been written and directed by Udayabanu Maheshwaran, eminent story and screenplay writer from mainstream Hindi cinema. G. Ramesh is the cinematographer, Karthik Raja the music director, lyrics by Na. Muthukumar, art direction by S. Maniraj, stunts by Super Subbarayan and choreography by Shanti Srihari.^[1]

Critical reception

Indiaglitz wrote "Naalai is a movie on gangsters sans major violent sequences and bloodshed. A swift screenplay and an apt narration make the movie interesting".^[2] Balaji wrote:"The familiar story is narrated in an entertaining manner with the screenplay going through enough small twists and turns to keep us engaged".^[3] Rediff wrote:"The absence of an original story line and a weak screenplay takes the sheen out of the film. On the whole, it is a film with a lot of gloss and stale content".^[4]

References