Almost Nallavan: a dark comedy about your online double

H Vinoth has spent a decade making some of the biggest star vehicles in the industry: Ajith’s Valimai and Thunivu, Karthi’s Theeran, and Vijay’s still-unreleased Jana Nayagan. For his first outing as a producer, he has gone the other way, backing a first-time director’s dark comedy headlined by a reality-television winner. The film is Almost Nallavan, and it went before the camera with a pooja on Monday morning.

The premise is sharper than the title lets on. Raju Jeyamohan, who directs and plays the lead, describes it as a story built on the idea that every person is a mix of good and flaws, then pulls that thought into the phone in your pocket. People now live with two identities, he says, their real self and the polished one they build online, and some slowly start believing the digital version is who they actually are. Almost Nallavan follows exactly that kind of person, and the unravelling that comes once the two selves stop matching. Even the title leans on the hesitation in that word, the “almost there, almost done” of a man who is never quite the thing he claims to be. Raju is pitching it as a dark comedy with rooted, rural humour that still plays as a family entertainer.

It is a notable swing for a man best known off screen. Raju Jeyamohan won Bigg Boss Tamil season 5, then won Cooku with Comali, and spent years in supporting parts before finally leading a film with last year’s Bun Butter Jam. He says he first floated the idea to Sudhan Sundaram and Vinoth, who pushed him to build it into a full screenplay. Directing himself in a genre film is a considerable step up, and having Vinoth’s name on the poster gives it a weight most debuts do not get.

Sathyaraj takes a pivotal role and Dushara Vijayan plays the female lead, with Iman Annachi, Bigg Boss alum Thamarai Selvi, stage artist Yaazhini and Pritham Chakravarthy filling out the cast. Dushara, last seen in Veera Dheera Sooran: Part 2, also has Vishal’s directorial debut Magudam awaiting release.

For the producers, the pitch was the tone. Sudhan Sundaram of Passion Studios said he could picture the theatre laughing the moment Raju narrated the script, calling the humour organic and rooted in native sensibilities. Vinoth framed his move into production as a way to back new storytellers, arriving the same week Pradeep Ranganathan announced his own first venture. The Monday launch drew a wide industry turnout, with RJ Balaji, Adhik Ravichandran and Rangaraj Pandey among those who came by.

The technical roster is more pedigreed than a debut usually musters. Foxn, on a run of hits, scores the film; TS Prasanna, who assisted on Jailer and Doctor, handles the camera; and Govind, the editor of 96 and Meiyazhagan, cuts it, with Bala Jayapradha making her debut as art director. Vinoth is bankrolling all of it through his newly launched Aspire Ubuntu Films alongside Passion Studios, even as his Jana Nayagan, Vijay’s final film, stays stuck in certification limbo. A release date and the rest of the cast are still to be locked, but the pooja is done and the cameras are rolling.