Nenjamundu Nermaiyundu Odu Raja Movie Review: A Silly Comedy That Needed A Few More Jokes To Work

Language: Tamil

Cast: Rio Raj, VJ Vicky, Radha Ravi

Director: Karthik Venugopalan

Listen to this recurring gag from Nenjamundu Nermaiyundu Odu Raja to see if this kind of comedy works for you. A superstitious politician needs to listen to his nephew sneeze before he leaves for work. If the nephew doesn't, the politician's sidekicks stuff earbuds into his nose to force him let out a wet one. Another extended gag involves a crazy person who can't resist hitting people with a stick. There's also another gag involving two men drooling over their houseowner's wife. Get where I'm going with this? Does this kind of comedy work for you? If it does, you're in for a treat, because this is the level at which most jokes operate in this film.

Nenjamundu Nermaiyundu Odu Raja is split into three tasks assigned to two good-for-nothing wastrels by a very rich man. The duo must complete all three to get a large sum of money from him. The first involves making it to prime time news, the second involves making a crazy person an MLA. The third? No, I do not want to spoil this wonderful film for you.

When the jokes aren't silly and immature, like the ones mentioned above, they are homophobic and offensive. How old is the idea of having the fat comic sidekick wear t-shirts with 'funny' one liners on it? And when are we going to stop using those annoying sound effects to underscore every non-joke? What's worse is how this particularly silly film takes a U-turn to become all serious, tackling a social issue. It talks about how people don't care enough to get involved in social causes anymore. This film too feels like a social cause in that case given how little we care about it.