A remake of the critically acclaimed and commercially successful Malayalam film ‘Classmates’, ‘Ninaithale Inikkum’ centers around a group of batch-mates, who return to their alma mater a decade later for a re-union. The memories being mostly bitter ones, of secrets, lies and rivalries, the title seems a misnomer. The film too falls short of the earlier one in sustaining pace and interest. The narration moves back and forth in time, as each reminisces about the past, till it all zeroes down to that crucial day of the unfortunate death of their classmate Shakthi, pleasant-natured and a friend to all. The re-union had been arranged by Shakthi’s father (good work by Bhagyaraj here), in memory of his son. As old events are re-told, and secrets come tumbling out, the audience gets a new perspective into the decade old happenings they had already witnessed. The director has made some superficial changes, but these only work to its disadvantage, slackening the tempo. The individuality of characters, so finely defined in the earlier version gets lost, with the director trying to balance the footage for his two heroes, with equal song-dance numbers. The songs being a disappointment, there is not much on that front either. It is easy comfort for Prithviraj who re-enacts the role of the group leader he had played in the earlier version. Kartik Kumar as the trouble maker, handles his role effectively. The meatier role goes to Shakthi, his character leaving the maximum impact. There is nothing much for Priyamani, the actress looking gawky and self conscious in her glasses. The heavier role of the vendetta-driven girl goes to Anuja Iyer (‘Sivi’, M3V’), who yet again proves herself as an actress of emotional calibre.
Though it seems a watered-down version of the Malayalam film, ‘Ninaithale Inikkum’ does offer a different viewing experience to the Tamil audiences.