BOTTOM LINE
Tamil Sit-Com Runs Out of Steam
PLATFORM
Amazon Prime Video
RUNTIME
220 Minutes (7 Episodes)
What Is the Show About?
Namma Seidhi, a community newspaper, gains sudden fame after cracking a high-profile kidnapping case, but the fame brings unintended trouble. From a local boxer’s threat to a corporate baron’s smear campaign designed to buy them out cheaply, the team is pushed to the brink. As best friends Veera and Azhagu clash under pressure, an unknown informant creates more chaos.
Performances
Rishikanth and Abdool Lee are reasonably formidable faces, but the stuffy writing barely allows their characters to settle down. Their on-screen friendship hardly strikes a chord. In fact, it is just the kind of show that R Pandiarajan would have aced in his prime. In the shoes of a loan shark uncle, you witness glimpses of the veteran’s sharp comic timing here.
Another veteran, Chinni Jayanth, plays the dead grandfather who speaks through a wall portrait; you wish he had more value to add than providing unsolicited commentary. Maurish Dass plays the typical local boy with flair. Adwitha Arumugam and Nandhitha Sreekumar show reasonable spunk in brief roles, while Rini, as Krishnaveni, has too insignificant a role to create an impression.
Analysis
Created by Abbhinav Kastura and Praveen Muthurangan, Local Times, on paper, starts as a quirky, rooted tale of a community newspaper, where the founder’s underdog grandson and his team of misfits fight to safeguard its legacy. The director, Naveen George Thomas, brings together a motley crew of oddball characters who are challenged by corporate sharks. While debts mount, friendships are tested, and love blossoms, the team struggles to hold their own during these testing times.
Though it appears to be a gritty, small-scale David vs. Goliath clash, treated partly as satire and partly as dramedy, the execution starts falling apart rather quickly. The creators, desperate for a sitcom flavour, consistently overcook it with quirky ideas. They offer a ringside view of the inner functioning of a cash-strapped newspaper, but struggle to package them coherently.
The dead grandfather serves as a narrator for the drama, providing tongue-in-cheek commentary about the proceedings and how his grandson and gang keep finding newer ways to land in trouble. Both pivotal characters, Veera and Azhagu, get their own love stories with a cop and a sub-editor. Veera also has a love-hate relationship with his well-meaning uncle Vallal, a loan shark.
A runaway student works as an intern, wanting to learn first and earn later. Perhaps to keep a viewer invested in the show throughout, new faces turn up at the drop of a hat. A huge payment comes their way mistakenly through a local boxer. A middle-aged woman with nowhere to go lands at their doorstep for help. An anonymous source hands them scoops to publish stories. It is hard to predict where the tale is headed.
The narrative does not provide enough space for the core premise to truly evolve. It loses steam amidst middling subplots and over-the-top staging, which results in cacophony. Instead of advancing the simplicity in the setting and the innocence of the characters, the show restlessly chases one dramatic event after the other, which do not flow in organically either. The laughs dry up as early as the second episode.
The hint of a romance between Vallal and the middle-aged woman in the house genuinely sparks interest, but is abandoned suddenly for reasons best known to the makers. The threads around the blackmailing YouTuber and a celebrity influencer couple are vain attempts to cash in on pop-culture trends. The entire saga around the publication of blank pages turning out to be a win-win situation for Namma Seidhi is an instance where you sense a spark in the writing.
Unsurprisingly, a twist towards the climax sets the ground for another season. Local Times is a case of pure indulgence. It just does not know where and when to stop or set its priorities right. A bulk of the damage is a result of its tonality. The performances are loud, and the dialogues are verbose. The show regularly screams for attention, changing gears easily while its charm wears off like a pack of cards.
Music and Other Departments?
Composer Tapass Naresh is forced to play a catch-up game throughout, trying hard to find order amidst the chaos and bring momentum to the episodes. The cinematography, by Sandeep K. Vijay, is easy on the eye with vibrant colours, but the repetitive focus on the dilapidated house that serves as the office gets on your nerves. The show could have easily done away with multiple subplots at the script level; it overstays its welcome by at least two episodes.
Highlights?
Quirky, workable premise
Few good characters, subplots
Reasonable script
Drawbacks?
The loud, over-the-top treatment
Beaming with ideas which don’t flow organically
Comedy barely works
Did I Enjoy It?
Only Occasionally
Will You Recommend It?
If you can tolerate underdog stories with loud treatment
Local Times Web Series Review by M9 News
