Review: Nagesh Thiraiarangam

Film: Nagesh Thiraiarangam
Director: Isaq
Cast: Aari, Ashna Zaveri, MGR Latha, Kaali Venkat, Masoom Shankar, Sitara, Atulya Ravi and others
Music: Sri
Cinematography: Naushad

Nagesh Thiraiarangam, a good horror thriller, does more than just thrill. It entertains and also educates.

Director Isaq’s horror film tells a very realistic story which is grounded in facts. While by and large the story is about a spirit that haunts a theatre, the film also touches upon the subject of a major medical scandal that still continues to go on unchecked in our country.

Nagesh (Aari) is a real estate broker, who is highly unsuccessful in his job. In fact, he is so unsuccessful that he is yet to seal even a single deal in the real estate business. This is because he is a conscientious guy and his truthful nature results in him returning home empty handed. Nagesh has a younger brother and it is in fact, he who runs the family. The two brothers have a younger sister (Athulya Ravi), who does not possess the power of speech. Despite his inability to earn, Nagesh is loved by his mother (Sithara), who, after the death of her husband, has single-handedly managed to raise all three kids on her own.

Like in most families worried about the future of a youngster, Nagesh’s mother too consults an astrologer about his future. He suggests that if Nagesh gets married his luck would change. So, the mother begins to look out for prospective alliances and as a result, a reluctant, Nagesh, ends up along with his family members, at the residence of a prospective bride(Aashna Zaveri). However, she turns down the alliance once she gets to know that he is not an IT professional and that he is a broker. Subsequently, however, the two fall in love after she gets to know of his helpful nature.

One day, Nagesh gets to know from his bride-to-be that his sister is in love with a boy from a well-to-do family. Nagesh tells the boy that he must bring his parents to ask for her hand if he is serious about his love for his sister. The boy as told. However,the boy’s parents demand a dowry of 150 sovereigns of gold for the wedding to take place. While the siblings are shocked, their mother remains calm and agrees. The wedding date gets fixed.

Nagesh begins to worry about how to deliver the 150 sovereigns of gold they have promised the groom’s family when his mother gives him the ownership documents of a theatre called Nagesh Thiraiarangam and asks him to sell it. Use that money to buy gold, she says and goes on to disclose to Nagesh that his dad, before his death, had transferred the theatre to his sister’s name.

Delighted at having found a way, Nagesh sets off along with his friend (Kaali Venkat) to the village where the theatre is located. But then, once they reach there, they are in for a shock. Villagers are scared about venturing anywhere close to the theatre as they believe it to be haunted. This results in a situation where no buyers come forward to buy the building. A desperate Nagesh decides to stay at the theatre to prove that there are no spirits there. However, when he does so, he realises that there is a spirit there and that it is killing a number of people, one by one. More importantly, every time, the spirit kills someone, Nagesh sees it as a dream in his sleep…

Aari as Nagesh impresses just like how he impressed with his performance in Nedunchalai. Be it the romantic sequences, the scary sequences or the funny sequences, Aari scores in all of them. It is evident that the actor has given his 100 per cent in this film too.

Aashna Zaveri as Aari’s girlfriend impresses in this film. She has a meaty role and she has used it well to showcase her acting potential. Ashna is so convincing as a girl from a Tamil household that one wonders why she isn’t cast more often in Tamil films. In fact, her lip sync and her responses in comedy sequences are so perfect that they give no trace of the fact that she is not a Tamil girl.

The other three strong performances come from Kaali Venkat, who is fast rising in the world of Tamil comedy, Athulya Ravi as the speech impaired sister and Sithara, a veteran who has delivered several commendable performances.

To his credit, director Isaq seems to have delivered everything in exactly the right proportion in the film. The film has a solid story that is very realistic. It has a little bit of good comedy and romance to ensure the fear factor doesn’t ruin the entertainment quotient for audiences. More importantlhy, it has good information on a racket that is still taking place in society. The film has exceptionally good CG, which along with the music and the sound, make the horror film scary.

In short, Nagesh Thiraiarangam is likely to be housefull.