Indiralokathil Na Azhagappan has a lot of expectation behind it. For one, Vadivelu is just coming off the huge success of Imsai Arasan 23am Pulikesi which turned out to be a huge blockbuster and has to prove that Imsai… was not just a one-off show and that he can pull of two hits in a row -- something which is even eluding many of our top heroes. And we are still expecting our first huge hit of 2008 with all the pongal releases turning out to be complete duds and as mentioned with Imsai… behind him, it is not surprising to expect Vadivelu to give us our first huge hit of 2008. Sadly, INA does not fulfill any of our expectations. With a threadbare, incoherent storyline and even weaker screenplay, INA gets its foundation all wrong and expects Vadivelu to carry the movie solely on his own shoulders which he cannot since the movie fails in the comedy aspect as well and ends up being a total snoozefest.

Summarizing whatever little story the movie has is pretty easy. Azhagappan (Vadivelu) is a stage actor who lives a pretty ordinary life with his mother and a few friends who are part of his stage acting crew. His mother, however, drops a bombshell that he will have two marriages and his first wife will die. He marries a statue as his first wife to get rid of the curse but that statue ends up being Rambha (Suja) from Indiralogam who has come to be in such a state because she could not return to heaven in time. Azhagappan is then taken to Indiralogam and Yamalogam where he gets to see all the wonders first hand and realizes how messed up the situation up there really is. How he sets right all that is wrong in both heaven and hell and what consequences he and Rambha face forms the rest of the story.

It is really a moot point discussing about the story anyway. Whatever I mentioned in the previous paragraph is pretty much all there is to it. However, what little there is has also not been scripted properly and the screenplay is all over the place and the pacing of the movie is really slack. Logic also falls short at many places such as how nobody thinks about following Vadivelu to check out where he really disappears to at night. Bad sentiments have been inserted in places near the interval and the climax but they seem overly artificial and we end up squirming in our seat because of them rather than connecting to any of these characters.

What is really pitiful is that the movie ends up having some really good messages underneath such as how a completely evil man ends up doing some good deeds and lives a short term in heaven for it and is destined for hell after that or how the opposite is true for really good people who end up in heaven after serving a short term in hell in the afterlife. A few other stuff like how even the worst of people can listen to reason if somebody just puts it to them in the proper way are all lost in the sea of mess that is the movie’s scripting.

Thotta Tharani’s sets really do a lot to make the movie watchable for its duration. He has recreated the vision of heaven and especially hell nearly perfectly and it is fascinating to watch all the sets and the art direction is top notch in almost every way. Music is really average and even the much hyped about Shriya’s item number is big letdown both in audio and picturization. Costumes are another one the movie’s few pluses and fit in with the art direction neatly.

One cannot help but pity Vadivelu in the movie. Apart from donning three roles he also carries the movie entirely on his shoulders. As Azhagappan he does not do anything different from other comic roles he has done in a variety of movies. His Indira role does not get enough screen time but whatever little there is adequate. It is as Yama, however, that he really shines. Although the God of Death has been portrayed as a brutal murderer, Vadivelu has done well to make the character funny and a bit likeable. The new girl Suja, as Rambha does not have much to do but does get a few good lines and she does justice to them. From the supporting cast, it is only Nasser who impresses as Naradha.

Overall, Indiralokathil Na Azhagappan falls flat and does not live upto any of the huge expectations. With unfunny dialogue, an incoherent storyline and weak screenplay, INA will bore you to death and actually make you feel relieved when the misery finally ends.