In Nambiyaar, every morning, Ramachandran (Srikanth) wakes up and tells himself three things: he is the best in the world, there’s nothing he cannot do, and he’s the most handsome man on the planet. Extravagant, one might think. But he has cause. After all, he shares his name with MGR, was born in February like Jayalalitha, and on the 12th day of the month, like Rajini.
He also channels positive thoughts to everyone around him. He does have negative thoughts, but they are relegated to a specific face. He combines the features of the people he doesn’t like – his brother, sister-in-law, and father; and comes up with none other than Santhanam (with a unibrow to boot). He names Santhanam ‘Nambiyaar’.
How Nambiyaar pops up at the most inconvenient moments, and forces Ram to make bad decisions, is the plot of debutant Ganesha’s fantasy film Nambiyaar.
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This film was shot many years ago, because here Santhanam is nothing like his current ‘mass hero’ self. He’s the hero’s chubby sidekick, and seemingly agreed to wear the unibrow for no reason. For comedy, he dishes out insults – Kangaroo ku Kannadi pottavan, Cooker Moonji, and Tar Tin. And compares attractive women to banganapalli mangoes.
In one of many distasteful scenes in the film, Nambiyaar tries to tell Ram that his girlfriend Saroja (Sunainaa) is a transwoman. To determine the truth of this, Ram goes looking for her. He finds her wearing a shirt and jeans. Worse, she’s sitting next to a group of transwomen. To complete the deception on our hero, thanks to a (convenient) cold, her voice is also deeper.
Now he’s convinced that she is ‘andha type’.
And so, the Nambiyaar in Ram takes over and he tries to sexually assault his girlfriend. He then justifies this (because in Tamil movies you can), by saying that earlier she had tried to be intimate with him. Wanting to be intimate and forcing sex is on par for him. Later, he goes to her office and harasses her. Whose fault is that? Her bra, he says, because apparently it’s too tight.
In the end, the sensible Saroja baffles us all by deciding to reunite with him. Why? Because, at least he is truthful. Is it misogynist or misandrist when the bar is set so low for men?
*****
Recommended
Even more baffling is that Srikanth, who is also the producer of this film, had complained that the CBFC was being unfair in awarding a ‘U/A’ certificate to this clean, comedy entertainer.
If Santhanam’s one liners weren’t annoying enough, there’s also a ‘bar song’, in which he drunkenly sings praises of alcoholism. Santhanam has ceased to be the infuriating sidekick who does nothing but insult everyone. But now, he’s the hero who does nothing but insult everyone.
The curse of the ‘Santhanam humour’ carries on.
*****
The Nambiyaar review is a Silverscreen original article. It was not paid for or commissioned by anyone associated with the movie. Silverscreen.in and its writers do not have any commercial relationship with movies that are reviewed on the site.