Namitha craze coming to end with Azhagana Ponnuthan?

It was once the theatres went houseful even Namitha makes cameo or guest appearance in films. Today even if she appears in every frame with seducing glamourous costumes, theatres are empty. Even her die-hard fans have not been seen in theatres. Yes. Yet another big disappointment for Namitha as her latest release ‘Azhagana Ponnuthan’ failed in box office and it joins the list of her recent failures Indira Vizha, Jaganmohini, Nil Gavani Kathali. Why her much awaited films fail one by one even though they are Namitha-centric films and it contains her full-fledged glamour? Before we get into that analysis, let us first see Azhagana Ponnuthan’s story in a nutshell.

Director Thiru has stolen the story of ‘Azhagana Ponnuthan’ from the 1971 classic ‘Summer of 42’. In ‘Summer of 42’, the film starts where the hero recollects his teenage and the summer vacation he spent in his village. There he has a one-sided romance with a woman who is much older to him, whose husband had gone off to fight the Second World War. Similarly, ‘Azhagana Ponnuthan’ starts with actor Parthiban recollecting that one woman for whom he developed an infatuation during his teens. The locale shifts to Kodaikanal where Karthik (Kartheesh) a student during his vacation falls madly in one-sided love with Jennifer (Namitha). Till interval the film is all about hero Kartheesh imagining romantic interludes and meetings with Jennifer laced with dream songs. Post interval Karthik goes loony due to his deep and passionate love for her. The rest of the film becomes a sob story as Jennifer is driven out of the place as the local women think she is out to seduce their husbands. ‘Summer of 42’ is considered as a classic because of the chemistry between Gary Grimes who played the 15 year old hero lusting after Jennifer O’Neil. ‘Azhagana Ponnuthan’ has been remade crudely with lots of unnecessary melodrama and ladies sentiments in the climax. There is no passion and the whole story is narrated as the hero’s imagination.

Believing the hype created by media, Namitha did not want to shed her ‘oomph girl’ tag and she went on to act in pickle roles in films viz. Sandai, Pandi, Perumal, Thee, 1977, etc. She was not choosy when she was at peak and did not try risky plots. The reason for failure of much awaited Namitha-centric films viz. Indira Vizha, Jaganmohini, Nil Gavani Kathali and Azhagana Ponnuthan is they were under production for too longer period for various reasons. So, there were continuity problems in Namitha’s make-up in these films. In some scenes, she looked slim & cute and in some other scenes, she looked plump & mature. Even Sundar.C who earlier used Namitha in all his films now prefers ‘Indira Vizha’ fame ‘tender chicken’ Hemamalini alias Sruthi Prakash. As I wrote already in this site, it is high time for Namitha to reform her thoughts and portray good roles under good directors to reach the top again.