He's made half a dozen films over the years, scripting, directing and playing the lead. And now Babu Ganesh comes out with Nadigai . Handling about 14 departments (a one-up on T.Rajendher here!), including music, lyrics, editing, cinematography and so on, Ganesh aims to get his name in the Guinness Book of World records. Obviously, it’s about numbers and not quality here.
This time the director sets his script with the film industry as the backdrop. He plays Albert, a film institute graduate, who plans his first directorial venture with fast rising actress Mumtaz (Mumtaz) as his heroine. A moral support to him and his crew, Mumtaz’s sudden demise, stalls the film. On the advice of a film bigwig and Mumtaz’s confidante (Kovai Sarala, wrongly cast), Albert persuades Teja (Tejasri) a dancer and the daughter of a police officer, to play the heroine. The discovery that Mumtaz’s death was a murder, and the unraveling of it, forms the rest.
The director probably intended to make a film on the hardships an actress goes through, as she climbs the ladder of stardom. But somewhere along the way, he goes on a totally different tangent. What we get to see is a confused script, a hotchpotch of situations, totally devoid of any logic and continuity, or sense and sensibility. And in such a scenario, it’s unreasonable to expect a decent performance from any of the cast.
There is a take-off on ‘Anniyan’, a film financier here, quite an eccentric guy with hair all over his face. There is a straight lift of the song ‘choli ke peeche kya hai. The question-answer session between the press and screen sirens Shakila and Sharmilee is hilarious, though it was not meant to be so. And so are the antics of the two mentally challenged sisters of Mumtaz, who create quite a racket, not making it any better. Nadigai would have made a delightful spoof on the working of the film industry, and of film- making here. Like, on how a maker can direct, complete and get his films released at regular intervals, with not an inkling on how to work out a script. Or, on how a maker with misplaced confidence, can take on the onus of handling the crucial departments of film-making, without getting even one right. Like it’s happened here!
expresso@epmltd.com