Even though Santhanam’s one-liners have a skewed hit ratio in the film, the ones that work bring the roof down.
Published:May 17, 2024
Anand Narayan's directorial 'Inga Naan Thaan Kingu'. (X)

It is odd to see a Santhanam film begin with a terrorist attack in Mumbai. Make no mistake, his latest — Inga Naan Thaan Kingu, is pegged as a laugh riot. But it begins with a bomb blast that kills hundreds of people.
It’s a sobering start, and this continues for a while even when the film moves to Chennai. Here, we are acquainted with the life of Vetrivel, a happy-go-unlucky-in-marriage youngster.
Despite working for a matrimonial website, he is unable to find the best life partner. Why? He wants ₹25 lakh in dowry to repay his home loan. Why does he have a home loan?
He is an orphan and believes he will get a bride only if he possesses his own house. It might be the writing team’s way of saying, “Hey look! What the hero is asking isn’t dowry! The marriage market forced him to buy his own house. So, it is the fault of the system.”
Lol, I guess!
Santhanam and Priyalaya in ‘Inga Naan Thaan Kingu’. (X)
Inga Naan Thaan Kingu takes some time to get into the groove. But the film steps up a gear when Vetri gets married to Thenmozhi (Priyalaya).
She is the heiress to a rich zamindar named Vijayakumar (Thambi Ramaiah) and the sister of Chinna Jameen Bala (Bala Saravanan).
In these portions, logic goes right out of the window. There is no point questioning the whys and hows but we don’t mind because the comedy works.
It might not be ha-ha-ha-ha jokes but they are definitely ha-ha ones.
Even though Santhanam’s one-liners have a skewed hit ratio in the film, the ones that work bring the roof down. The same holds good for almost all Inga Naan Thaan Kingu gags.
In comedies, many a time, it is futile to expect character arcs, redemption, etc., to happen to the protagonists. We are in for a laughter ride, and these films are measured by that yardstick.
On that front, Inga Naan Thaan Kingu manages to get things right a few times when the film revolves around the antics of the zamindar family and Vetri.
There is one sentiment scene in this stretch that is honest and very effective. But it is soon followed by a comedy scene that kickstarts the comedy of errors. Now, we can’t reminisce too long on the pathos when the aim is to make us laugh. We move ahead because we have to.
Also, it is interesting to see Santhanam settle in the back seat, and not go on comedy overdrive right from the word go. This allows Santhanam and Priyalaya to break into a sensuous duet at one time, and turn into Indian versions of Ken and Barbie at another.
Yes, songs are hindrances in a film that involves a corpse, terrorist threats, police announcing a big bounty, three whimsical groups vying for the money, and a trigger-happy terrorist.
But they exist to showcase the other facets of Santhanam—the actor, and these are small compromises when looking at the bigger picture.
D Immam composed the music for ‘Inga Naan Thaan Kingu’. (X)
Unfortunately, Inga Naan Thaan Kingu is burdened by the lack of a coherent plot. We are bombarded with one gag after another, and since not all of them work, we are left playing the waiting game for the next big laugh.
It is during this waiting period that we realise that the film is unintentionally vacuous at times. Despite raising the stakes, especially in the Sundar C-esque climax where all characters come together under a single roof, Inga Naan Thaan Kingu falls flat because it fails to go all in.
The slight inclination towards heroism in the final act doesn’t bode well for the film. But this focus on Santhanam’s heroic antics provides other actors with the opportunity to showcase their comedy skills.
While the usual suspects like Thambi Ramaiah, Bala Saravanan, Munishkanth, Maaran, Swaminathan and the late Seshu get the timing right, the newcomer—Priyalaya is the surprise package in the film.
There are a lot of scenes that involve the entire ensemble, and Priyalaya manages to stand toe-to-toe with these veterans.
The premise of Inga Naan Thaan Kingu, I mean, the actual premise—the apartment where Vetri resides, must be one of the weirdest places in the city.
Is it normal to have a fully functioning bordello in a residential complex? Now wait, I am not saying it shouldn’t be there. We saw something similar in Ayan (2009), too. But there needs to be logic in the fantastical, too.
As the film progresses, we understand that the sex workers are present in the same apartment to facilitate convenience in the writing. In these portions, the filmmaker opts for low-brow humour that is mostly ineffective but easy pickings.
Take, for instance, the extended scene in a hospital where these characters dress up as nurses. Instead of wearing the nurse uniform, we see in our country, they dress up like the characters of a porn parody from the West.
The commodification of these characters felt disappointing. But, towards the end of that gag, there is a brilliant callback to an earlier scene, and that half-a-laugh makes us overlook the disappointment, albeit briefly.
Inga Naan Thaan Kingu might test your patience a lot but manages to throw in gags that are smart, silly, well-written, winged in, risque, uncomfortable, unnecessary, unhinged, and a lot more.
The film seems to have been built on the hope that bombarding us with attempts at comedy might make us overlook the issues, including a distracting wig for Santhanam. If only!
(Views expressed here are personal.)

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