NERKONDA PAARVAI (2019)
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| Critic - No.170 |
Producer: Boney Kapoor
Casts: Ajith Kumar, Shraddha Srinath, Rangaraj Pandey, Abhirami, Vidya Balan, Andrea Tariang
Language: Tamil
Genre: Crime / Drama
Music: Yuvan Shankar Raja
SYNOPSIS:
When three young women are implicated in a crime, a retired lawyer steps forward to help them clear their names.
REVIEW:
It’s never an easy task to remake a courtroom drama like ‘Pink’ that not only bold that resonated so strongly with all sets of audiences. Director Vinoth had a mammoth job to translate the flavour of the film without diluting the strong content of the source material and he has come out from the hurdle with flying colours.
The film doesn’t deviate much from the original and follows through the intense courtroom drama of how a retired lawyer who is suffering from bipolar disorder helps a girl fight a case or attempt murder on a wealthy man’s son. The film travels with jet speed and intensity that leaves no room for any ‘mass’ scenes that you see in a typical Ajith film. In fact Vinoth has kept the 90 percent of the screenplay similar to the original which is commendable. The writing is razor sharp in the courtroom scenes. The idea of killing the judgmental views of modern girls has been brilliantly presented with so much of clarity without touching the preachy button.
From the time the project was announced, it was shocking to see a huge superstar like Ajith who is on his peak of his career choosing a subdued role like this. Of course, another challenge was to essay a role that the legend Amitabh Bachchan owned in the original. But Ajith not only surprises us by his subdued performance but also take an important step in shedding his mass image and focusing on playing a character in a film filled with an important message, something that rarely happens in the Tamil cinema. A perfect example is when Shraddha gets kidnapped in and Ajith starts his jeep at his home to save her. A typical mass film set up for a fight scene. But that doesn’t happen. Vinoth sprinkles a few set ups as such in the film, probably his way of symbolically tuning the audience to expect beyond the cliches established by the stars previously.
The casts are brilliantly handpicked and Shraddha and Ranagaraj Pandey are terrific. The latter who is deutant in acting plays out his role with so much of conviction and zest. Music by Yuvan Shankar Raja is functional and helps to elevate the situations further.
On the flip side, Vinoth inserts an episode of Ajith’s backstory that does look good in paper but somehow becomes nothing but a speed breaker to the intense proceedings. It does not add much value to the character psyche as well. Yes, we get that he failed to protect his wife and he somehow searches for redemption in the current case in saving the three girls but there’s an obvious disconnect to this chapter. Vidya Balan looks great but the film offers only a thin scope for her performance. Without this chapter, the film would have been much crisper.
In addition, the closure for the case might be as elaborate than the original as well with a few questions unanswered on the sentencing of the culprits. There are two well justified fight scenes that were added as well but has been paced well which does not stick like a sore thumb.
In overall, ‘Nerkonda Paarvai’ is an important timely film that hopes to shift mind sets that have been existing for ages. The change will definitely be progressive but this will definitely encourage more young filmmakers to make socially responsible films with big stars for the greater good. Big heroes have the power to bring out important messages as such to a big crowd and hope this film will pave way for more stars to choose such films.
VERDICT:
Despite a
few commercial deviations, 'Nerkonda
Paarvai' is a faithful remake of ‘Pink’ that slams a strong message
on Women rights in India, quite effectively with the help of the stellar cast
ensemble.
CELLULOID METER- 3.5/5:
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