Nammal Thammil

The name is familiar to us the name of a talk show in a leading television channel. I already told you about the bitter experience in watching the film ‘Aayirathil Oruvan’. Along with the treatment, the late release of the film has caused the main damage there. Now ‘Nammal Thammil’ is another project which is now released was proposed to release during 2003. The film starring Prithviraj and Indrajith is special to me, since I got a chance to associate in the technical side of the film 6years before. I had also watched 75% of the shooting process of the film. But I can’t claim credit for a single frame in the current version of the film released.


‘Nammal Thammil’ is directed by Viji Thamby and produced by Evershine Mani. Sanjiv Shankar handles the camera. The scriptwriter of ‘Nammal Thammil’ is Alex Kadavil (late) and John Paul has penned the dialogue. M.jayachandran has give n5 songs for different moods; among them “Junile Nilamazhayil…” is a hit romantic duet.

Vicky (Prithviraj) is a union chairman in an Engineering college. He is in love with his classmate (Geethu Mohandas). The villain (don’t know the name, he has acted in ‘Sivam’) wants to win the heart of the heroine, when failed he makes plan to destroy the image of the hero. Thus the chairman’s career is spoiled, without knowing he gets responsible for whatever negative things happen in the college.

This causes the break in the relationship of the lovers. This time, John (Indrajith) gets admitted to the college as a new student. As her old friend, she gets closer to John, which is not liked by Vicky. Both of them fight each other while the villain takes advantage of the situation. In the end the real truth is revealed, John is the elder brother of Vicky. Vicky is the son of Balachandra Menon and Revathi, while John is born to Menon and his ex-lover Suhasini. There ends a happy ‘Nammal Thammil’.

We have seen this story a 1000 times through films in hindi, tamil and Malayalam right from 1970’s. In the opening scene, it is written on a black board that “College Elections 2003”, there itself viewers felt uneasiness since that they are made fool. The climax in which heroine reveals the truth is too dramatic and looks non realistic. In the beginning title card, it is written as “Seevidhanam – Viji Thamby”, why the director left as it is a big question. As expected there is an old feeling in each and every scenes. Using an English song bit in the re recording for pathos situations in such a film is a childishness. The sound quality of the film is not up to the mark.

In an argument scene, Geethu tells Prithviraj, “…or else Aiswarya Rai will come to sit with you…” Though it was a dialogue written in 2003, when Prithviraj’s career grown to a remarkable level in 2009, Maniratnam’s new film which is to be released soon has got Aiswarya Rai as his pair and one promotional still of the film showed Aiwarya sitting on Prithviraj’s lap. Thus in the movie world, what happens tomorrow is unpredictable.


Going to the theatre to watch a six year old film like ‘Nammal Thammil’, which deals with an uninteresting subject, is not a wise decision.


Rating : 2 / 5