‘Technicolor’ seems to be the hottest word of the week when it comes to releases this Friday. If interior colors And Wicked Technicolor spectacles from two different corners of the world, director Karthik Naren’s latest offering, Nirangal Moondru, Not only adds to that list, but also treats the three-color process as a metaphor for the men who populate its vibrant world.

A character says, “Vazhakai oru nadgam dhaane” (after all, isn’t life a play?), and the play takes Shakespeare’s idea of ​​’all the world’s a stage’ a little too seriously. When high school student Parvati (Ammu Abhirami) goes missing, her father and teacher Vasanth (Rahman) and his “friend” Sri (Dushyant) set out to search for her. Concurrently, the bound script of Vetri (Atharvaa), a budding filmmaker, is stolen, and due to his hostile relationship with his police father Selvam (Sarathkumar), it is up to him to find his script. With these unrelated events occurring over the course of a single night, the characters and their wants and needs unexpectedly collide.

Boiled to the core, Nirangal Moondru It is the story of fathers and their relationship with the life they bring into existence. Sree’s family problems make him hate his father, but he sees a father figure in his teacher, Vasanth, which makes him guilty of developing feelings for Vasanth’s daughter, Parvati. Vetri’s hatred for her father, Selvam, is a sharp contrast to her love for his spoiled son of a politician, who rubs Selvam the wrong way. In a way, one can also draw an analogy between Vasanth’s panic of losing her daughter and Vetri’s panic of losing the script that he had carefully produced with his first and only love, films.

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Karthik Narine takes his own sweet time.; He takes the entire first half to establish these characters and their motives. Within that period, while the film gives very little reason for them, what keeps us engaged despite the script not being so clear on the way forward is how much it reveals about its characters without going into detail. Does. But whether the disparate worlds of our primary characters come together seamlessly is a different question entirely, and that’s where the film falters.

Unlike many of the hyperbolic films we have in Tamil cinema, whose makers have attempted to balance their multiple storylines equally Nirangal Moondru Obviously his favourites. As the only connecting point for the subplots and the pivot for the film to display its balancing act, it is Atharva’s character that the film sticks with for most of the time, and when Vetri utters a line about a senior filmmaker Who is betraying trust and confidence. The newbie has it, you know it’s anything but a coincidence; that’s personal!

In the Atharva segment we see the film truly come to life. As a drug-addicted filmmaker whose downward spiral is exacerbated by the series of substances he abuses his body with, he creates some of the film’s most vivid scenes. Add to this the brilliant score by Jake Bejoy (who has had a wonderful week with releases in three languages), and the technical prowess of cinematographer Tjo Tomy and editor Srijit Sarang, the trippy sequences take us on a journey through the out-of-the-way Vetri. But let’s take it. Body experiences. Of course, there’s a cursory ‘do not try this at home’ warning as a character explains how he’s been sober for a year, but Nirangal Moondru It doesn’t aspire to be an inspirational film about a drug addict getting clean; Conversely, it does not hold back in its depiction of drugs.

A scene from ‘Nirangal Moondru’. Photo Credit: @Ayngaraninternational/YouTube

While Atharva does an adequate job as a young man going through a plethora of emotions, it is the character of seniors Nirangal Moondru Which shows how it’s done with characters who have more than meets the eye. Although short-lived, it is a treat to see Sarathkumar play a villain that is reminiscent of his villainous roles in his earlier films before transforming into a full-fledged hero. Rahman also gets one of his strongest roles in Tamil cinema in recent times and he plays a layered character with ease.

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After the trippy visuals, which show Atharva as God with his trident (the film is full of Hindu iconography and references, including naming a character Parvati and the use of snakes and lizards), it is clear that The film becomes self-indulgent. Not only does this make the otherwise thin runtime seem longer, but the solid ending makes it feel like the film took the easy way out.

A fan of pop culture, Cathy fills the film with metaphors and references. For example, the three main characters’ names are what they are pursuing in life; there is even one Principle-Induced action sequence. But, they fail to adopt convenient writing choices resulting in questionable twists and character arcs. Whereas Nirangal Moondru It may be far from perfection and not as interesting as the filmmaker’s brilliant debut, Dhuruvangal PathinaruIt’s definitely miles ahead of his recent works Mafia: Chapter 1 And Maraneven if Nirangal Moondru It may not be a success, but it’s a step on the right path for its young director, who is more adept at working with high-concept scripts than high-flying stars, because that’s what a filmmaker does. As brings out their true colors.

Nirangal Moondru is currently running in theaters