Natpe Thunai (Eng: Friendship is Guide) is a 2019 Indian Tamil language musical sports comedy film directed by D. Parthiban Desingu in his directorial debut, while Sreekanth Vasrp and Devesh Jeyachandran have written the film’s story, screenplay and dialogues.
Natpe Thunai is said to be based on the sport of hockey, which stars Adhi, Anagha, and Karu Pazhaniappan in the lead roles alongside actors Harish Uthaman, Shah Ra, Pandiarajan, and Kausalya. This film marks the Tamil debut of Anagha.
Prabhakaran (Adhi) is a happy-go-lucky youngster in Pondicherry whose only ambition is to move to France. He goes to Karaikal for this purpose, but there, he ends up falling in love with Deepa (Anagha), a hockey player. Through her, he comes in contact with Shanmugam (Harish Uthaman), a kindhearted retired military man who is the coach of the local hockey team.
A corporate is after the ground where Shanmugam’s players practice, and they are aided by the local politician Harichandran (Karu Pazhaniappan). Later by filing a RTI about the company, Shanmugam comes to know about the corporate company’s plan of setting up a factory in the ground which pollutes the nearby rivers and harmful for the nearby villagers living there. Now to save the ground from the corporate and Harichandran, Shanmugam’s students should play with the Pondicherry hockey team and win the match. While selecting the hockey players for his team, he comes to know that Prabha was the 2012 Junior World Cup Indian hockey team captain who was banned for three years and labelled as mentally unstable. When Shanmugam asks Prabha to join their hockey team and help them win the match, he refuses and narrates his past and his reasons for leaving hockey.
Prabha and Azhar (Guhan Prakash), his childhood friend, are both hockey players. Prabha is an attacker in his team, while Azhar is defense in the same team. Prabha, after being selected by national selectors, gets into the Indian hockey team and later becomes the captain of the 2012 Junior World Cup competition’s Indian hockey team, but Azhar is rejected in the Indian hockey team and asks about this to his coach (Elango Kumaravel), who mocks his desire to play hockey as well as his financial status and instead tells him to help his father in his fishing business. Because of this, Azhar commits suicide in grief, and one of Prabha’s friends (RJ Vigneshkanth) loses his leg to an oncoming train when he tries to save him. When Prabha comes to know about this, he gets furious and beats up his coach, because of which he gets banned for three years.
Later, Shanmugam decides to protest against the corporate company’s unit being set up there with the help of his students and the local people, but Harichandran uses his dirty tricks and prevents Shanmugam from becoming successful in his protest. Harichandran later acquaints with Prabha’s former coach to thwart Shanmugam’s team from winning the hockey tournament.
After seeing the local people suffering, Prabha decides to join the hockey team and get back the ground. Shanmugam and Prabha train the players, and later, after facing so many difficulties, they win the match and get their ground back. When they come back to the ground, they see Harichandran (who has lost his position now) giving a speech to the press as feeling happy for Shanmugam team’s victory. He comes to Prabha and blames the common people for voting leaders monetary benefits and questions Prabha if the people will elect a person who is doing good for them without any money, for which Prabha is unable to find an answer.
Directed by D. Parthiban Desingu
Produced by Sundar C. & Kushboo
Written by Sreekanth Vasrp & Devesh Jeyachandran
Starring Hiphop Tamizha Adhi, Anagha, Karu Pazhaniappan, Shah Ra, Harish Uthaman
Music by Hiphop Tamizha
Cinematography Aravinnd Singh
Edited by Fenny Oliver
Production Avni Movies
Distributed by Screen Scene Media Entertainment
Release date April 4, 2019
Running time 155 minutes
Country India
Language Tamil
