NENJAM MARAPPATHILLAI (2021)

Critic - No. 197

Director: Selvaraghavan

Produced by: Escape Artists Motion Pictures, GLO Studios, Southside Studios

Casts: S.J.Suryah, Regina Cassandra, Nandita Swetha

Language: Tamil

Genre: Horror

Music: Yuvan Shankar Raja

SYNOPSIS: 

Nenjam Marappathillai revolves around Mariam (Regina Cassandra), a poor girl from a convent who takes on a job as a baby-sitter in a home belonging to a wealthy eccentric man, Ramsay (S.J.Suryah) who starts lusting for her.

 

REVIEW:

[Spoiler alert!]

Whenever you watch Selvaraghavan’s film, you have to tune your mind to enter a totally different world that breaks away from stereotypes, natural staging, and even the delivery dialogues. In other words, Selva is a true contemporary auteur of our times who knows how to create original works that are truly incarnated from his peculiar mind. When Selva joined hands with S.J.Suryah, another director turned actor who also has a unique meter of acting, expectations hit sky high in 2016. It was also the film that marked the reunion of Selva and Yuavn Shankar Raja after 10 years. After 4 years of struggle, the Nenjam Marappathillai finally has seen the light and I feel, for a high concept film like this, releasing at an OTT- savvy time where the mass audiences are in tune with layered films, the delay might just be a painful blessing for the film. 

The film starts off by focusing on Mariyam, a God-fearing orphan who grew up at a Christian convent, clinching a high-paying job at a wealthy home as a nanny. It is lust at first sight for Ramsay, who has come up in life solely by hook and crook. He tries to take advantage of Mariyam, but she spurns his advances. The cunning Ramsay then plots to get his wife, Shwetha(Nanditha) out of the way so that he can get what he wants. And after he succeeds, the revenge game starts. 

Yes, it sounds like a template horror story that we have seen for many years, but directed by Selva, he treats it with his usual craziness with exaggerated characters that give us a whole new trippy product that just oozes with infectious energy. From the time where Ramsay is introduced in a filtered frame with constant cuts to him playing an electric guitar on a stage, Selva keeps on throwing random but significant images that symbolically the bent mind of the drug addict (subtly hinted in the pre-climax) Ramsay. Of course, Selva doesn’t make anything so explicit and even uses songs as a metaphorical tool to craft out the traits of Ramsay. Nothing about Ramsay is good; he is a straight-out devil who walks with full insecurity till he even shaves his whole face every morning and wears branded clothes to constantly reinstate to the society that he now belongs to the upper class. I am not sure whether this was Selva’s intention but it somehow feels that Ramsay imitates (might be a movie fan?) Marlo Brando and Sivaji Ganesan to show that he is majestic as their fictional rich characters in films.

His relationship with his wife is clearly toxic with subtle hints again showing that Shwetha might be also cheating on him and thus clearly is okay with him having extramarital affairs as well. In fact, as the film goes on, there are also implications that Mariyam might not be the first victim of this horrific family. As I have mentioned, Selva doesn’t show anything explicitly but there are tons of hints thrown everywhere to make up the thickness of the characters and plot. Of course, Selva has also inserted some characters and scenes which doesn't clearly sit well in the narration. But thank God, there is less decoding to be done here than the ambiguous NGK (2019).

In parallel, Mariyam is shown as an epitome of goodness, almost a God’s child. She even gets a goosebump when she enters Ramsay’s house, almost as if a pure soul is warned while entering a hell filled with nothing but badness. She is killed during Good Friday to resurrect later into a heightened soul who uses the elements of nature to gain power for her revenge. And the entire play evolves into a bigger idea of God vs Devil at the climax. Yes, the climax definitely feels abrupt and the tacky graphics heavily cheapens the film, hindering the entire mood of the film.

Yuvan’s score is terrific and the songs that are written by Selva, feel like a story itself that peeks into the playful mind of Ramsay. This is definitely the best performance of S.J.Suryah for me and even though a section of the audience might feel that it is just too much, being so consistent with an eccentric character is just great. Regina with her divine face is probably the most normalised character in Selva’s world. Nanditha is perfect as a psychotic, image-conscious wife who brings in a nice twist in the end. The bunch of servants who play a pivotal role in the film is good well.

And despite all the quirkiness (or perhaps because of that), the film feels emotionally cold. We never really care for Mariyam as much as we should and we never despise Ramsay as much as we should. This might be the reason why the highest point of the climax falls flat. That said, Nenjam Marappathillai feels original at all stands that are so engaging throughout. Yes, the film is far from perfect but genre-bending prototypes like these should be encouraged in order to grow the industry out of the routine women objectifying. popular horror flicks we see in Indian cinema. 

 

VERDICT:

Auteur Selvaraghavan trashes the genre tropes with Nenjam Marappathillai to immerse us into an eccentric, cold world of horror that is passionately driven by S.J.Suryah’s spellbinding performance. 

CELLULOID METER- 3.5/5: