NAAN RAJAVAAGA POGIREN MOVIE REVIEW

After 'Udhayam NH4', the main technicians of that team has regrouped again for another of Vetrimaaran's assistant, Prithvi Rajkumar's debut film. 'Naan Rajavaaga Pogiren' has Nakul making a comeback after a 4-year hiatus, accompanied by some new and old faces of Tamizh cinema, filling up the character artistes quotient. Aided by Vetrimaaran, did Prithvi Rajkumar live up to his mentor's name ?

Starting off with the cast, Nakul shows some improvement in his performance. He shows more ease and comfort in the action sequences and his dialogue delivery. But as Jeeva, his diminutive-in-heroism act was on the poorer side of the acting scale. The acting was not convincing and natural, and the 'forced' attempt to act was visible. Poor extraction from the director, perhaps ? Chandini, has the more substantial role of the heroines. She has been accorded more screen space and the heavier performance-enhancing scenes. Avani Modi, is too static and conscious of the presence of the camera. Savitha dubs for the former, while Chinmayee takes care of the latter's. But Avani Modi's performance suffers, due to the mismatch in dubbing sync. Directors Gaurav and A.Venkatesh carry the antagonist roles, and they look apt for the characters they portrayed, though there's nothing particular to praise about. The film has a glut of character artistes such as Nishanth, Manivannan, Kasthuri, Suresh, Vanitha Vijayakumar, Chetan, Muthuraman, Simhaa, Vasu Vikram, 'Delhi' Ganesh, Thiyagu, Mayilsamy, Aarthi and etc and all of them were functional.

Dhilip Subbarayan has choreographed solid action sequences, with the element of kick-boxing, fitting the style of Nakul's. The cricket ground and mall fight sequences, were very professionally done. G.Durairaj's art direction was decent. His art work for the posh apartment sequences, the half-built construction sites, and minute details such as posters and props, were decent works, indeed. Mabbu Jyothiprakash's editing work is functional, but he could have chopped of plenty of scenes, so that the film could have been more racier, with better continuity. R.Velraj proves his class again, with very good framing and camera movements, which creates and aura of suspense and thrill. His night shots are very well shot, and his best works of the film is evident in the mentioned action sequences !

G.V Prakash Kumar, who has been on a role, with a string of decent hits, takes a dip in form in , 'Naan Rajavaaga Pogiren'. The songs were dull and none of the number's were catchy enough ! "College Paadam" is a customary college-intro song, with plenty of good looking female dancers and shot mostly in and around the college campus. Plenty of cut-shots and good camera movements are incorporated into the song. Vetrimaaran, R.Velraj and G.V Prakash make cameo appearances in the song. "Raja Raja" is a montage song, showing the moments shared by the characters played by Nakul and Avani Modi, with dialogue sequences interspersed. "Kalaaipom" is a party song sung by Silambarasan, with all dancers appearing in particular dress codes. The song was shot on all three lead artistes and with different lights used in the backdrop to create a party atmosphere. "Yaar Ivano" was shot on Nakul and Chandini, romancing along the picturesque Goan beaches and landmarks. "Malgova" is a typical item song and Zarine Khan does the jig this time around. The song was poor in quality and the choice of totally-out-of-shape Zarine as an item girl, is a bewildering one by the director. The song was set in a shooting-like scenario. The background score was better than the songs, to be frank. Especially for the tensed moments.

Prithvi Rajkumar has an interesting knot to his story and a clever title. But what's totally missing is an acute and engrossing screenplay ! It is obvious that, Prithvi's style of film-making has a heavy sense of Vetrimaaran's touch, but the screenplay and direction was poorer in quality. The film moves in a very slow pace with a barrage of social messages, thrust into the film, unnecessarily. The usage of monologues was excessive, which gets boring after a certain period. The direction was hurried and there's no proper execution in canning important sequences. Characters were very not properly developed nor the artistes were properly utilized. Surprisingly, Vetrimaaran's dialogues were just handy enough and nothing impressive, in particular.The only plus point one could think of is the cleverly used red herring element in the screenplay, and the rest of the film is just a cover-up for it, which unfortunately plays spoilsport.

'Naan Rajavaaga Pogiren' - Good idea, below average execution.

Ratings: 2.25/5 STARS

BY:TAMIL