Naan Sirithal (Eng: When I Laugh) is a 2020 Indian Tamil language comedy film written and directed by Raana in his directorial debut. Following the success of Meesaya Murukku and Natpe Thunai, Sundar C co-produced Aadhi’s third film. Hiphop Tamizha and Iswarya Menon are playing a leading role and K. S. Ravikumar is playing a villain role, while Badava Gopi, Eruma Saani Vijay are playing supporting role. Naan Sirithal is a feature film version of Raana’s own short film Keka Beka Keka Beka. The first-look was released on October 7, 2019.
Naan Sirithal opens with an interview given by Thyagu (Eruma Saani Vijay), Gopi(Badava Gopi) and Gandhi(Hiphop Tamizha Aadhi). Gandhi then starts to tell the story of his life. He is a happy go lucky man who works in the IT. He is in love with his office colleague Ankitha (Iswarya Menon). Due to unfortunate circumstances at his workplace, he is told to clear his failed exams in Engineering, or else he would lose his job. Ankitha also pressurizes him to study well and pass the exam, yet he is unable to study properly and enters the exam hall. Seeing the question paper which contains out of syllabus questions, all the stress from various parts of his life gets accumulated and Gandhi starts to laugh uncontrollably in the exam hall. This is when his laughing problem begins. This condition is called as ‘Pseudobulbar affect’, for which he faces trouble in various places and even Ankitha breaks up with him. He is not allowed to tell about this to anyone as he has tied a sacred talisman which will help him solve his problems. Meanwhile, Gandhi’s close friend Dilli Babu (Yogi Babu) is heartbroken because his girlfriend is marrying someone else and tells them that he plans to commit suicide. So Gandhi and his friends go in search of him.
Meanwhile, there is also a dreaded gangster in town named Dilli Babu (K. S. Ravikumar) who has a politician’s secret hard drive for safekeeping. Sakaradas (Ravi Mariya) is Dilli Babu’s arch nemesis. Hence, he sends his henchmen Nelson (Sha Ra) and Manikkam (Munishkanth) to kill Dilli Babu on his birthday party and steal the hard drive. Gandhi and his friends book Ola Cabs to file a missing-person complaint on their friend Dilli Babu; Nelson and Manikkam also arrange for a car to go to the gangster Dilli Babu’s birthday party. In a sheer twist of coincidence, both the cars are at the same pick up location, in the same color with the same OTP code. Gandhi and his friends get in the wrong car to Dilli Babu’s birthday party. Nelson and Manikkam end up in the police station with all their weapons causing suspicion.
Dilli Babu is aware of Sakaradas’s plan of killing him and assumes Gandhi and his friends to be the henchmen sent by Sakaradas. Things spiral out of control when Dilli Babu starts beating Gandhi up and prepares to kill him. Suddenly, in fear and pain, Gandhi starts laughing uncontrollably, even after Dilli Babu beats him black and blue. Dilli Babu is enraged at this and all the henchmen mock at his inability to control an ordinary looking guy like Gandhi. Soon, the policemen arrive and arrest Dilli Babu and he vows to teach Gandhi a lesson.
Sakaradas is grateful to Gandhi for his displays of bravado right on his rival’s face aiding in his arrest and supports & protects him. He also unwittingly reunites Gandhi with Ankitha and her parents agree for their wedding. Meanwhile, Gandhi and his friends try to find the missing friend Dilli Babu and eventually get to know that he is trying to commit suicide at the venue of his girlfriend’s wedding. They rush to the venue and hilarious events ensue as the gangster Dilli Babu also arrives there with his men to kill Gandhi and Sakaradas who has been helping him. Finally Gandhi is able to save his friend from committing suicide and the gangster Dilli Babu also realizes that Gandhi is not actually brave but only has a disorder that makes him laugh at the most inconvenient of situations. He lets Gandhi go and also hands over the hard drive containing the secrets to Gandhi hoping he will make a change in the society. Back in the present, Gandhi explains to the interviewer that he overcame his problems by putting on a mask and pretending to be fine amidst all the problems, indirectly citing that this is actually how people all over the world are leading their lives.
Directed by Raana
Produced by N. Manivannan & Sundar C. (presenter)
Written by Raana
Based on Keka Beka Keka Beka
Starring Hiphop Tamizha Aadhi, Iswarya Menon, K. S. Ravikumar
Music by Hiphop Tamizha
Cinematography Vanchinathan
Edited by Sreejith Sarang
Production Avni Movies
Distributed by Rock Fort Entertainment
Release date 14 February 2020
Running time 137 minutes
Country India
Language Tamil
