Lokesh Kumar’s N4 is set in Kasimedu, a hamlet in North Chennai that’s a major hub for fishing in the city. Appropriately, the film opens with a title song that captures life in the area, with visuals of beautiful silver fish being sold in the bustling market. What’s immediately arresting about the casting – at least to me – is the dusky skinned women actors playing the lead. How rare is it to see that in mainstream Tamil cinema, where the usual practice is to either cast pale-skinned women or brownface them in an attempt to make them suit a role.
Vinusha Devi and Gabriella Sellus play Abhinaya and Soundarya, sisters in an unconventional family that has come together through a tragedy. They live with their ‘ayah’, Kannamma (Vadivukkarasi), along with Karthi (Afsal Hameed), Surya (Michael Thangadurai) and Chennila, a trans woman (Chennila). Lokesh manages to weave in a lot of diversity among the characters – that of gender, class, caste, disability, religion – and not in a ‘tick-all-the-boxes’ way. That’s because not everything is turned into an issue, in the fashion of superficially ‘woke’ storytelling. Instead, these differences are allowed to appear as a natural part of the fabric, reflecting actual realities where difference doesn’t always translate to conflict in every context.
The film takes its time to establish the characters and how their lives intersect on one fateful night at the N4 beach. Anupama Kumar plays Fathima, a single parent and a police officer. Again, there is no song and dance about her religion – which is a relief, considering how often Muslim women are exoticized and stereotyped in popular culture. The screenplay follows a non-linear structure, going back and forth in time to unravel what exactly happened on the beach. The nature of the crime itself is rather interesting, but the investigation that follows isn’t as gripping as one would imagine.
A key point in the plot is a moral dilemma that Fathima faces. But before the drama can become heightened, it is resolved all too quickly. The writing doesn’t allow the tension to simmer and build, and some of the sequences end up looking unconvincing. For instance, it seems rather strange that the guilty party would show themselves up so foolishly when there was nothing really pinning them to the crime, and they’re far more privileged than the victim.
The script also depends on one too many coincidences to tie everything together, and has some unexplained gaps in the story. Why does Velu thatha return now, and so conveniently right after we hear from Kannamma about how he’d abandoned her? What really happens in that overnight fishing trip that Surya and Karthi go on? Their delayed return is cause for much hand-wringing but it doesn’t lead anywhere other than a romantic song. There’s a red herring villain lounging in the background, but nothing much happens with him either.
The problem with N4 is that the interesting ideas aren’t fleshed out sufficiently, and you get a sense of stagnation despite its taut runtime of just over two hours. The climax should have been hard-hitting, but feels watered down because there are too many characters by then, and most of them aren’t memorable. All the men sound the same, and the image of Vada Chennai as a place for ganja smoking and criminal activities is unnecessarily emphasised (did we really need that ‘comedy’ around chain snatching?). Still, it is commendable that the film doesn’t go down the predictable route of warring gangsters, and there is barely any violence despite the premise.
Among the actors, Gabriella and Vadivukkarasi stand out. They lift every scene that they’re in, smoothing out the rough edges and making us care. Shoutout also to Subhalaxmi Parida, better known as The Cheeky DNA on Instagram — she’s naturally funny and I wish there had been more of her in the film. The background score is over-the-top at times, especially when trying to emphasise humour in a few mildly comic scenes, but the songs work well and are charmingly shot. N4’s central idea seems to have been to look at how an accidental crime exposes power equations and systemic prejudice, without casting anyone as a vicious villain. But the film doesn’t quite live up to its potential.
Sowmya Rajendran writes on gender, culture, and cinema. She has written over 25 books, including a nonfiction book on gender for adolescents. She was awarded the Sahitya Akademi’s Bal Sahitya Puraskar for her novel Mayil Will Not Be Quiet in 2015.
Disclaimer: This review was not paid for or commissioned by anyone associated with the film. Neither TNM nor any of its reviewers have any sort of business relationship with the producers or any other members of its cast and crew.