Based on a real account, this movie was first made in Malayalam as ‘Traffic’ and went on to become a huge hit for its gripping screenplay. It’s Tamil remake had hit the screens with mounted expectations and a casting coup with almost a bokeh of celebrities peeking in and out at least in a scene or two.
Chennaiyil Oru Naal (CON), is the gripping account of an accident victim who is termed as brain dead by the doctors, whose heart is still needed by another person who is fighting for her life. So the victim’s parents had to be convinced for the transplant and then the heart has to be transported within a stipulated time frame from Chennai to Vellore via road.
The story started as a multi-layered narrative until it converged post interval at a single point wherein the focus was on the subject of heart transplant and the thrill ride that accompanied that. The main problem with the story was the screenplay and acting. Debutant director Shaheed Kader had a neatly carved out story on which he needed to add some sheen with his screenplay in order to make it glitter, but sadly he faltered in the process as he added some fake aggression to the narrative that stood out time and again underlining the fact that it was an amateur effort.
Acting per se was below par from almost all the actors - among the lot, those who stood out were Jayaprakash, Lakshmi Ramakrishnan and Prasanna to some extent. Many fine actors like Prasanna, Iniya, Mallika and Parvathi Menon were merely wasted in their roles and had literally very little scope. Especially Prasanna’s love and hate episode with Iniya was notoriously misplaced and gave a forcibly induced twist to the story making the proceedings stale.
Sarathkumar, Prakash Raj, Radhika and Cheran were supposed to be leading the brigade, but their characterization were stale and left very little room for improvisation. None of them delivered anything special. Also the movie ended with a special cameo from Surya, insisting on organ donation and as always Surya appeared as the one who represents ‘all things good’... phew.
Music by debutant Mejo Joseph was average and the movie had only 2 tracks, which was a bit of a relief.
Editor Mahesh Narayanan has done a good job at keeping the movie under hours and has made it look racy even though the acting and screenplay was a setback of sort.
Cinematography by Shehnad Jalal was not noteworthy but was sufficient for the narrative.
The movie would have been much better if only the director had done away with the fakely made up momentum and below par acting that hampered it from reaching the finishing line.
Rating: 2/5
Verdict: Watch it on SUN TV in a month or two!
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