I have always been a huge admirer of SJ Surya and he has really raised the bar for deranged, lunatic character portrayals after giving us spellbinding performances in two 2017 movies- Spyder and Mersal.

His role as a henpecked businessman looking to take advantage of a hapless nanny seemed tailor-made. And most of the first half flies by due to his captivating mannerisms alongside a fine performance from Regina Cassandra.

Unfortunately, the trademark unpredictability of Selvaraghavan kicks in soon after, negatively, and in a big way. For a director that gave us the highs of Aayirathil Oruvan (2010) and Mayakkam Enna (2011) he has also given us dismal flops like Irandam Ulagam (2013) and NGK (2019).

Nenjam Marappathillai will go down as one of these failures for me, especially coming from a director who can deliver so much more for audiences.

SJ Surya is expectedly brilliant and some punch dialogues towards the climax really hit you hard but unfortunately, the movie falls apart around him. This was too over-the-top, even by Selvaraghavan standards.

You might enjoy this if you are a die-hard SJ Surya fan. For others, give it a miss!