Azhagana Naatkal

Azhagana Naatkal directed bu Sundar C. Chandru(Karthik) agrees to wed Rekha(Mumtaj) after his dad(Manivannan) and elder brother(Rajeev) convince him that it will be best for their business. But after the wedding has been finalised, Indu(Rambha) appears out of the blue with a child in tow and charges Chandru with being the father of the child. Turns out that Chandru and Indu were lovers before but had been separated by force of circumstances. Chandru desperately tries to prove his innocence while Indu begins to be accepted by his family members. Sundar C makes it apparent in almost every frame that he is trying to recapture the atmosphere of Ullathai Alli Thaa. The basic formula of a large group of people with individual agendas, leading to a number of separate tracks with tenuous links to each other, are present here too. Here the two main tracks are Karthik trying to trap Rambha into telling the truth and Koundamani suspecting his wife of having an affair with Karthik. The former works only at places with most of the ruses(like his recording her confession) ending in a predictable fasion. The sequence with Pandiarajan is one that works. Koundamani's track contains most of the laughs with sequences being fashioned quite cleverly to confirm his suspicions about his wife and Karthik. The sequences where Karthik changes his dress inside the car and plans his wedding(with Koundamani misinterpreting the lines) are the top picks. The number of tracks increases as the movie proceeds to culminate in a suitably chaotic climax. Fortunately, the climax also turns out to be the most hilarious segment of Azhagaana Naatkal. The host of kidnappings in similar-looking cars sets up a potentially confusing situation but the chaos has been brilliantly managed through a very clever screenplay that never ceases to be funny. Several of the one-liners here(like Koundamani's comparison of his situation to cricket) find their mark. The frequent phone calls from Ponnambalam to 'Delhi' Ganesh and the result of Anu Mohan's attempt to kidnap Rambha's daughter also lead to some very funny lines and sequences. After trying out some serious roles for a while, Karthik seems to have returned to full length comedies with movies like Lovely and this. But he is definitely well-suited to light-hearted affairs and his frustration at not being able to trap Rambha is well brought out. Rambha looks thin and jaded while Mumtaj is on hand for a couple of song sequences and then disappears. Among the huge cast of supporting actors, 'Delhi' Ganesh makes an impression with his expletive-laden comments(a la Vinu Chakravarthy in Paarthen Rasithen). The kid who plays Rambha's daughter looks cute though she doesn't have much of a role.