Sotta Sotta Nanaiyuthu Movie Review: This follicle-focused comedy goes bald in the second half

Sotta Sotta Nanaiyuthu Movie Review:

Going bald is tough. While it does a number on an individual's self-esteem, society's snide remarks and cruel nicknames only contribute to creating more insecurities. So, is a film about the trials and tribulations of a bald person surviving this society pertinent? Absolutely yes. But it is also important to be consistent with the messaging, rather than keep it as a penultimate monologue. Sotta Sotta Nanaiyuthu starts on a promising note, tackling the topic of body shaming and baldness with a pinch of humour. Halfway through, however, the film loses its own head. When the hero Raja (Nishanth Russo) finally gets hair, the script has already gone bald of logic and focus. 

From the start, Raja and his parents are frustrated by his failed marriage prospects. Yet not once do they consider hair transplantation until much later. It is baffling that the parents obsess more over hair follicles than Raja’s lack of employment. Even the prospective brides reject him only for baldness, not joblessness, which is a far more common reason in reality. These logical slips eventually lead to a receding narrative.

Cast: Nishanth Russo, Shalini, Varshini Venkat, KPY Raja, Robo Shankar

Director: Naveedh S Fareedh

With the narrative packing a lot of story and character dynamics, the first half is smooth like mane on a good hair day. The Karaikudi houses act as a character of their own, and give more weightage to the film when compared to a few other live characters. Although mostly comprising dad jokes, the one-liners largely work out initially, as the story focuses on building a world. especially when Raja’s baldness is linked to his love interest’s hair oil brand, “Swarna Mayir.” Wordplay like “Swarna mayir” translating to “thangamudi” and someone saying, “thangave mudi illa” genuinely delivers laughs. Robo Shankar’s Kulukkal Kumaresan, the marriage broker, and KPY Raja’s Rocky, Raja’s sidekick, further pep up the humour. But post-interval, the humour starts waning, the story loses focus, and hyperfixates on a different issue. 

After facing heartbreak pre-interval, Raja returns with hair and finds another prospective life partner. Shruti (Varshini Venkat) is introduced as a content creator, and the satirical take on influencers does work very well, just not in this film. It is okay for films to have more than one theme or message, but not at the cost of forgetting the core message. By naming the influencer “tomato face” and going in-depth into the vices of the job, Sotta Sotta Naniyuthu loses the plot faster than losing hair, only to come back to baldness struggles towards the end of the film, by which time you forget about the hair, or lack thereof. 

The film also struggles with patchy writing, as scenes are put together with no coherence. In a scene, Raja confesses to Rocky his love for his neighbour Priya and rejoices with shyness. In the very next scene, melancholic music plays as Raja looks into the mirror as he sees his demons from the past (prospective brides) rejecting him for his baldness. Nothing happens to prompt that scene, but it is placed there just so we understand his frustration. Similarly, after facing heartbreak, Raja goes to Chennai for a hair transplant. There, at the doctor's office, two other bald men, along with him, speak a picture-perfect dialogue about the struggles of being bald, again something that is just sprung upon us. With the right concept in mind but inconsistent writing, the film ends up being glossy on top but empty beneath. 

With a will-this-never-end sequence in the second half, featuring Pugazh in a cameo, the film leads itself to a pretty justifying climax that finally brings the film back to baldness. Raja mentions a very important point about friends being the first to bully and body shame in the name of friendly teasing, and the impact it has on one's self-esteem. While the film does not give us the happy ending we so expect, defying stereotypes, it does end up similar to the ending of Ayushmann Khurrana's Bala, another film on balding. In the end, Sotta Sotta Nanaiyuthu proves that while hair transplants can fix a bald head, no surgery can save a bald script.