Ondimuniyum Nallapadanum Movie Review: A decent story suffers from outdated and amateurish direction

There is a general low-resolution idea of what a “grounded” Tamil social drama should feel like. Ondimuniyum Nallapadanum (OMNP) is a vague imitation of such an idea without imbibing the philosophy of films that take an incisive look at the human condition and have decidedly moved away from mainstream commercial cinema. OMNP is well-meaning, nonetheless. It shows a slice of Tamil Nadu (rural Kongu region) in a light we have rarely seen before. There is an unapologetic look at how the class hierarchy is inevitably frozen through the misanthropic structure of casteism.

Director: Sugavanam

Cast: Murugesan, Karthikeyan, Murugan, Vijayan, Senapathi, Chithra, Koushi

Nallapaadan is a meek farmer who has pledged to sacrifice his goat to the village deity, Ondimui. He faces several obstacles from the ego clash between warring landlords to his son constantaly trying to sell the goat to buy a bike, and his daughter’s persistent dowry-related issues with the in-laws. It seems like Nallapaadan has nothing to do except suffer, but the film uses his suffering as a lens to show the issues plaguing the village and the flaws of its inhabitants. There are subtle mentions of the village’s casteist behaviour, like when the school-going children of the landlord’s house disrespectfully address Nallapaadan the same way they do someone their own age. The landlords trick Nallapaadan into working for free and later serve porridge in a coconut shell they keep outside their house. Albeit in an unsubtle manner, the film gives you historical context for how the underprivileged in the village lost their land and fell to oppression over the course of generations. OMNP is not a vacuous social drama with nothing much to say. Even though we are not being offered any new perspectives, thematic richness is one of the few strengths of the film. The problems with OMNP are more primitive. The filmmaking itself suffers from painful amounts of amateurism.

The most basic expectation from a film, suspension of disbelief, is disregarded. The best performances of OMNP are ones that are over the top and the worst ones feel like an awkward stage drama at a school function. The writing exacerbates the problem by making everyone unlikeable and frustrating. Even the characters we are supposed to empathise with pile up one bad choice after another. Nallapaadan goes around begging everyone from the landlord to the villagers, his son, son-in-law, and the village butcher to help him fulfill his religious duty. However, the repeated act of seeing Nallapaadan being stepped on ends up being a source of frustration because we never fully empathise with his mission to fulfill a prayer. If the entire film hinges upon Nallapaadan’s unrelenting faith, then we should have had an incisive look at why it matters the world for him. The opening scene that establishes Nallapaadan’s reasons was not enough. Except for a half-baked interaction with Nallapaadan and his grandson at the end, the film never dissects the philosophical implications of its protagonist's adherence to his faith.

OMNP is meandering, indulgent, melodramatic, and amateurish. You see how it could have worked well as a short story, but the cinematic format builds upon several layers to turn writing into visual storytelling, and OMNP handles every one of the layers with the dexterity of a child designing a rocket engine with a box of crayons.