The film tracks the lives of four people over a few days. Touted as a trilingual, Namadhu, however, is a dubbed and fractionally reshot version of the Telugu film Manamantha. Though the main actors Mohanlal, Gautami and Urvashi lent their voices to the Tamil version, the poor lip sync is distracting, creating a feel of alienation. The director has adopted a non-linear multi-narrative style to depict the lives of his lead characters.
Sairam (Mohanlal), who works at a supermarket, is not above using an unethical method to get a promotion. Gayatri, a home maker (Gautami) and not quite a contented one at that; Mahathi a school girl (Raina) with a humanitarian streak; and Abhiram (Viswant) a colleger whose love life is not on the right track. The episodes with their independent tracks converge at the end. The storytelling is leisurely, the first half dry and flat. Also, the suspense is wasted as one can guess the climax miles off. A straight narrative style would have worked better.
Mohanlal’s performance as a guilt-ridden man who tries to rectify the unfortunate situation he created, cannot be faulted. But his heavy accent jars. Fitting in suitably, Gautami cuts a graceful picture. Among the four episodes the better crafted ones are that of Sairam and Mahatha.
With a feel of being disoriented throughout, till the end, one is not really sure if one had watched a Tamil flick, a Malayalam one,or a Telugu one. It seemed like a hotch-potch of all the three!