180 is a cliche

Right from the beginning Sathyam Cinemas' and Aghal Films' 180 (or Nootrenbathu, as it's called in Tamil) is certainly among the most stylish films made this year. Not very surprising, as it's the debut movie of veteran ad-maker Jayendra of Real Images. The production values are brilliant, Balasubramaniem's camera-work is spotless, Sharreth's music is easy on the ears while V Selvakumar's artwork is all cool -- shapes, high-rise apartments and quaint Chennai homes.From then on, it's a happy-go-lucky journey for Mano, who aimlessly drives round in an auto until he reaches a home in T Nagar; makes friends with a garrulous paperboy, runs around the city doing odd jobs like ironing, selling sundal and thus attracting the attentions of a very pretty photojournalist Vidhya (Nithya Menen) who works at the newspaper, Bharatha Mithran.

Then you come down to the story, penned by writers Subha and Jayendra himself. And you wonder exactly how and where it goes, or if it's even going anywhere which ends up being even more of a suspense than the plot-twist itself. Not that the beginning is quite so dismal, even if you're able to guess its direction within minutes: a somber Mano (Siddharth) rises from the waters of the Ganga in Varanasi (the droplets flowing off him most artistically), and watches various families perform the last rites of relatives. He's disturbed about his life, until a young boy apparently gives him direction (and incidentally, his name).

Vidhya, perky and enthusiastic, promptly tracks the elusive Mano down and arrives at his home, asks various probing questions and then, promptly falls in love with him. Her attraction increases, as he never volunteers information about himself and sets up a fund for newspaper boys' education in a jiffy.Naturally, you're given tantalising glimpses of Mano's life: he was, not too long ago, Ajay Kumar, a doctor with the Sunway Medical Centre, San Francisco, where he met the love of his life: Renuka Narayanan (Priya Anand). The two are instantly attracted and enjoy the NRI life, before getting married. In this, they have a solid friend, Sambasivam aka Sam (Sricharan). And then, things start to happen.