Saba Nayagan
Saba Nayagan
- -This coming-of-age drama follows Saba, the happy-go-lucky protagonist, through the years leading up to his adulthood and highlighting events of friendship and romance along the way.
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Saba Nayagan, a Tamil film, will be released theatrically on December 22, 2023, and is set to premiere on Disney Plus Hotstar on February 14, 2024.
Movie Review
Saba Nayagan centers around Aravindh, also known as Saba, who, after being apprehended by the police in an inebriated state, recounts his failed romantic endeavors from his school and college years. His tales captivate the police, eager to find out if he ever found his soulmate. Despite its relatable premise, the film struggles with humor and screenplay execution, leading to a disjointed narrative.
Plot Analysis:
The film begins spontaneously with Aravindh narrating his romantic misadventures to the police, hoping to elicit their empathy. The setup promises a humorous and nostalgic journey through universal experiences of school and college crushes, but the execution falls short.
Strengths:
- Relatable Premise: The protagonist’s romantic fumbles during school and college years are universal experiences that many can relate to, providing a strong foundation for the story.
- Ashok Selvan’s Performance: Despite needing to look more convincingly like a school kid, Ashok Selvan’s performance shines. His facial expressions effectively capture the character’s transition from a wide-eyed teenager to a confident young man.
Weaknesses:
- Humor: The film’s humor feels forced and predictable. The jokes are telegraphed with obvious cues like music and exaggerated performances, resulting in sporadic chuckles rather than genuine laughter.
- Screenplay: The screenplay is the film’s most significant flaw. The narrative feels stretched and disjointed, with a lack of central conflict driving the story. The protagonist’s motivations for falling in love are unclear, and the emotional weight of his heartbreaks is glossed over, preventing the audience from connecting with his journey.
- Supporting Characters: The supporting characters are given too much screen time, disrupting the pacing and overshadowing Aravindh’s character development. Valuable time that could have been used to explore Aravindh and his romantic interests is instead spent on random intervals involving secondary characters.
Saba Nayagan is built on the safe foundations of Aravindh’s pursuit of love as he grows from a boy to a man, with a refreshing setting around Erode and Coimbatore, breaking away from the typical Chennai-Madurai centric backdrop. However, the film’s low-dense screenplay and lack of emotional depth result in a harmless yet unremarkable viewing experience. While the relatable premise and Ashok Selvan’s performance provide some redeeming qualities, the film ultimately falls short of delivering a compelling narrative. Playing it safe might have seemed like a wise choice, but in this case, it leads to a film that struggles to make a lasting impact.
