The film starts with Justin getting released from jail while his friend Natty is waiting for him. A writer who witnesses this decided to write a biography on them. Justin and Natty are friends since childhood. They first met during the death of their respective parents. Both work as henchmen to Nair. They are his loyal servants and are prepared to lay their lives for him. However, a sequence of events results in Nair developing mistrust and hatred on the two. He employs another youth in their place and plans to bump them off. Eventually, Justin ends up in prison, and Nattu loses his leg thanks to Nair's plans. After three years, Justin, along with Natty, decides to stay away from violence and lead a peaceful life. Charu, a girl-next-door, falls in love with Justin, and both decide to marry. Meanwhile, a reformed Nair seeks an apology to both Natty and Justin before his death. However, when things go smooth in their lives, a previous enmity leaves Nair's henchmen making an attempt on Justin's life, which eventually claims Charu's life. In the climax, Justin stabs Aditya, while Justin himself gets stabbed and dies. The film ends with Natty carrying Justin and both jumping into the sea and dying.
Cast
Richard Rishi as Justin
Natarajan Subramaniam as Natty
Madhumitha as Charu
Nassar as Nair
Aditya Srivastav as Nair's employee
Bala Singh as Kothandam
Mahanadhi Shankar
Sembi as Bose
Suja Varunee
Nirosha
Manobala
Bose Venkat
Dhandapani
Edvin Nathan
Sivakumar Palakrishnan
Production
The film has been produced by internationally renowned documentary filmmaker and cinematographer S. Nallamuthu. The story has been written and directed by Udayabanu Maheshwaran, eminent story and screenplay writer from mainstream Hindi cinema. G. Ramesh is the cinematographer, Karthik Raja the music director, lyrics by Na. Muthukumar, art direction by S. Maniraj, stunts by Super Subbarayan and choreography by Shanti Srihari.
Critical reception
Indiaglitz wrote "Naalai is a movie on gangsterssans major violent sequences and bloodshed. A swift screenplay and an apt narration make the movie interesting". Balaji wrote:"The familiar story is narrated in an entertaining manner with the screenplay going through enough small twists and turns to keep us engaged". Rediff wrote:"The absence of an original story line and a weak screenplay takes the sheen out of the film. On the whole, it is a film with a lot of gloss and stale content".
