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Nala Damayanti

Director: Mouli
Cast: Madhavan, Githu Mohandas, Shrutika, Anu Hassan, Shriman, Master Aditya.

Bogged down by financial problems following his sister's marriage, Ramji, a simple Palghat brahmin cook, sets out to Australia to earn a livelihood and get his family out of the financial crunch. But the unexpected happens and soon he finds himself sans job,passport and work permit. Two kindred souls Badri and his wife (Shriman, Anu) give him shelter. Hounded by immigration officials, Ramji is persuaded by Badri's lawyer friend Ivan to go in for a marriage of convenience to Ivan's fiance Damayanti,an Australian citizen of Srilankan tamil origin. Their marriage, the attempts to hoodwink the immigration officials,the exposing of Ivan,all form the rest. It was meant to be a hilarious scenario, but doesn't quite turn out that way.

Most of the time one gets the feeling of watching a stage play. the situations lack spontaneity and most times are cliched and forced. Like the scene where a racist gang of Whites make their entries now and then into the narration to assault Ramji, thus taking care of the 'fight' scenes. The growing intimacy of Ramji-Damayanti are not convincing enough.

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Madhavan your acting was good..... - Karthikeyan, Toronto, 1/2/2004

Copy of the movie 'Green Card'..... - Sangeetha, Charlotte, 8/4/2003

too many cliched situations....... - sathya, zurich, 7/18/2003

Wow!A genuine comedy after a l..... - Nikhil, Boston, 7/14/2003

You know, your totally on the..... - Jass, Not Given, 7/7/2003

More importantly, Madhavan is not quite able to come up to the demands of the character. The way he portrays, Ramji rather than appearing as a simple villager trying to make it in an alien land, comes accross more as this moronic character, a Tom Hanks-of-Forrest Gump-style. His Palghat brahmin lingo too seems more a put on, a rehearsed type, than a spontaneous one. His English, shifting between the fluent and the stilted. In fact, for most part of the film, one tends to get distracted by the different lingos used. 

You don't get to see any exotic locations in Australia either, though debutant Sidharth's camera does try to capture a part of it in it's frames. Of Ramesh Vinayagam's tunes, 'Enna Ithu..' is the catchy one. The peppy English number 'Stranded..' (sung by Kamal Hassan) doesn't find a place in the film but is already making it to the popularity charts as a private album on TV channels. Popular Malayalam actress Githu Mohandas ( she's played Sathyraj-Suhasini's daughter, as a child artiste in 'En Bommukutty Ammavukku'), fits in adequately as Dayamanti. Anu Hassan has a lot of potential, but has yet get a role suited to her calibre. Endearing is master Adithya as Sonu. 

Produced by Kamal Hassan, it's a script he's supposed to have written for himself, about a decade back. With his perfect sense of timing, his penchant for comedy and his ability to adapt a suitable body-language, he would have been apt for the role. And the film may well have turned out to be a tolerably funny one. Kamal does make an appearance in the closing scene, playing himself, in his 'Sandiyar' get-up, a clever touch of publicity.

Published on 13^th June 2003