Oh, how the mighty have fallen! With his trend-setting mega-hit Kaadhal Koattai, Agathiyan wrote himself into Tamil cinema's history and record books. None of his subsequent films like Vidhukathai or Gokulathil Seethai came close to replicating Kaadhal Koattai's success but they did highlight Ahathiyan's willingness to tackle romances that were different from the routine, mushy love stories. He had a few flops after that but that still doesn't adequately prepare us for the disaster that is Nenjathai Killaadhey. Weird characters populate this unconvincing love story that is so silly that it feels like a full-length comedy except for the fact that all the laughs are unintentional.

Vaasan(Vikranth) is a rich young man who gets himself into sticky situations, like posing as a poor guy who can't pay the bill at a five-star restaurant or taking on another man's crime and spending a week in jail, just for the experience. Another such 'experience' finds him hiring a call-girl and after spending the day with her, letting her sleep undisturbed in his guesthouse. Anandi(Bharati), a documentary film-maker, happens to interview the same call-girl and intrigued by Vaasan's act, she meets up with him. When she argues that it would be impossible to spend such a long time in close proximity with another and not develop feelings for that person, Vaasan challenges her to spend a week with her on a private boathouse in Kerala. She accepts, confident that Vaasan will develop feelings for her but ends up falling for him.

Agathiyan has always had characters who he thought were radical but were just strange. Even in Kaadhal Koattai, for instance, the characters played by Karan and Heera were caricatures with their supposedly modern or carefree outlooks and outspoken natures. But they were supporting characters and so didn't impact the movie much. The problem here is that the two leads are the strange ones. With his antics(which include cross-dressing, apart from those listed above) and his explanations for them(the cross-dressing is reasoned with when women can wear men's dresses why can't I wear a woman's dress), Vikranth comes off looking crazy rather than even eccentric while the very fact that Bharathi falls for him after knowing that he is someone whose idea of a pickup line is I am not a male sex worker, baby, is enough reason to cart her off to the nearest mental hospital. Having been introduced to two such leads, we look forward to their romance with an emotion bordering on dread.

But the silliness in the previous acts of both Vikranth and Bharathi pales in comparison to how they handle the so-called romance. When Bharathi proposes to Vikranth, it is never clear why she fell for him and after he rudely rebuffs her proposal, his way of apologizing to her is to force her to propose to him again so that he can reject her more politely! Since there is no twist revealing to us the two of them are actually aliens posing as humans, their behavior, actions and way of reasoning are all completely unbelievable to us.

The film finally manages to generate some suspense after Bharathi rejects Vikranth in what is probably the first thing she does in the film that could be termed something other than dumb. But the film builds up to something that never happens. With the introduction of a new character, Vikranth's grand declarations to everybody around him and his actions right upto the last minute, the director makes us think that he has some plan up his sleeve. With this kind of anticipation, the film's end is just one big anti-climax. In a way, it could be called unexpected but not in a good way.

Wonder how much longer Vikranth is going to ride along based on his resemblance to his more famous cousin Vijay (I have a feeling that its Vijay getting Vikranth all these film offers since next to Vikranth, he comes off looking like a great actor!). He is completely wooden and whether he tries to pull off being playful or romantic or sad, the end result is the same - we end up laughing. Bharathi was just awesome in her debut in Ammuvaagiya Naan and this is all she was offered after that?! She tries hard to make it work but her character is just too dumb for her to earn any sympathy.

Nenjathai Kollaadhey is what we want to scream at Agathiyan!