The times are bad at Namma Seidhi, a formerly prestigious Tamil newspaper now being used to wrap hot snacks. Founder Chelladurai’s grandson Veera vows to keep the weekly newspaper alive with the help of his old buddy Azhagu, the intrepid Srivalli and unpaid intern Muthu. The Tamil show Local Times, out on Prime Video, explores the adventures of this very sincere, very clueless and very endearing quartet.
The debt-burdened Veera (Rishikanth) is obsessed with increasing the number of advertisements in the weekly paper – a challenge when he owes money to the local tea shop. His buddy Azgahu (Abdool Lee) is an eternal optimist, convinced that Namma Seidhi (Our Newspaper) will survive. Srivalli (Adwitha Arumugam) is the only sensible one around. Muthu (Maurish Das) is the wild-haired goofball who fulfils the screenwriting dictum that two’s company, three’s a crowd, and four is a party.
The seven-episode series, directed by Naveen George Thomas, isn’t aiming to be taught in journalism school. Written by Praveen Muthurangan and created by Abbhinav Kastura, along with Praveen Muthurangan, Satwik Gade, Thomas Manuel, and Visvaksen P, Local Times provides scant evidence of how the newspaper’s staffers put their edition together every week. Instead, the makers roll out numerous funny scenes punctuated by sharp lines and endearing performances.
The interlinked seven episodes pursue trivial matters including the case of a missing girl – which is solved not through reporting but an inadvertent breakthrough – and an older woman (Nanditha Sreekumar) who wants to be adopted since her family has abandoned her. Veera’s grandfather Chelladurai (Chinni Jayanth) turns up from time to time as the resident ghost. Veera’s moneylender Vallal (R Pandiarajan) pretends to play party-pooper.
The police officer Krishnaveni (Rini) and Veera are bashful around one other. Azhagu and Srivalli have a nice rhythm going. The stakes are mildly raised when a mysterious buyer turs up to buy out Namma Seidhi, an offer that Veera finds it hard to refuse.
Local Times is having so much fun hanging out that it doesn’t care too much that the plot is flimsy, overstretched and downright silly at times. Sharp performances by the main actors and a seemingly endless supply of comic moments ensure that Local Times remains watchable. The news gathering is absent; the joke gathering is plentiful.
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