Suraj’s Naai Sekar Returns, does everything it can to glorify the Vadivelu magic, his past and how he made the world laugh through his dialogue delivery and signature body language.
The comic actor is a dog-snatcher who roams around in garish shirts and capri pants. The film introduces the comedian with demigod status, as early as his introduction shot — this is sprinkled with a everlasting montage of some of his classic funnyman roles.
Naai Sekar Returns is billed as ‘Vaigai Puyal’ Vadivelu’s “comeback”. The movie is congregation of popular Vadivelu memes from the time when he was at his glorious best. But alas, the meme creators would have done a better job preserving the man’s legacy and his outstanding contribution to Tamil cinema. Vadivelu owes a lot to meme creators.
The film has some of the most “it” comedians today, including Redin Kingsley, Sivaangi, Munishkanth, and KPY Bala. Humour often has a lot to do with reacting, which is something of an expert territory for Vadivelu, who is known to tactfully make one bellow with laughter.
But Naai Sekar treats these actors and their bits as if they were dull individual set pieces spouting rhythmic words with comedic effect (Vadacurry and pedigree, for instance). And can the rape jokes stop already? But in a film anchored by Vadivelu, Anandraj gets one of the best tracks — as crass as his story begins (he gets hurt in his nether region thanks to a gun mishap).
Naai Sekar Returns : There is nothing refreshing about it, its a cringe drama
At the beginning, the movie runs various comedy clips of Vadivelu that have all become part of our everyday meme game. If only they had played all those clips for two hours instead of Naai Sekar Returns.
Anandraj is Dass, the deadliest rowdy in all of Chennai, with a soft spot for his pet bull dog. But when his furry baby is abducted by Naai Sekar by accident, a rivalry is quick to form, and he is on his tail (pun not intended). For a brief period of time that Dass is indisposed, there is this nice idea that the film explores. By the time he assembles his gang of sundry criminals, they have all gotten other jobs and broken “good”. One of them has even turned into a house husband.
Naai Sekar Returns rides primarily on Vadivelu’s body language; his gorgeous facial expressions and the occasional punchlines he delivers. All of this makes you miss the man more.
Watch Naai Sekar Returns, watch the fun here
Vadivelu tries his darndest best to put on a good show and do what he does best. He in fact goes on to slip in some of his most beloved dialogues into his lines. But all this does is make us smile sadly, filling us with nostalgia of his mythos that we once knew and enjoyed.
With the exception of Sivaangi, who is also mysteriously missing in action for most of its runtime, the other two leads (Shivani Narayanan and Sanjana Singh) are sexualised drones who are used to merely take its tired plot forward. And there is no exception made for the lovely dogs on screen as well.
Baring Anandraj & Gang’s few comedy portion, its a complete dud. SaNa’s music ok. Expected much more from Vadivelu. Issue s with d writing-Cliched, Predictable, Logicless scenes; Thats fine actually, bt whr is humour, fun? CRINGE Drama!
This is movie Naai Sekar Returns is for Vadivelu fans, it is them who need to decide whether others should watch it or not.