NOVEMBER STORY (2021)
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| Critic - No. 215 |
Director: Indhra Subramanian
Written by: Indhra Subramanian
Produced by: Vikatan Televistas
Casts: Tamannaah, Pasupathy, G.M.Kumar, Vivek Prasanna, Aruldass, Myna Nandhini
Language: Tamil
Genre: Crime, Thriller (Web-series, 7 Episodes)
SYNOPSIS:
A famous crime novelist, Ganesan (G.M. Kumar) suffering from Alzheimer's disease is found at a crime scene with no recollection of what occurred.
REVIEW:
‘November Story’ travels through three narrative threads. In the first one, we see the life story of a child raised by a nun who grows into a boy attracted to surgery and later, a man forced to give up his dream. In the second one, three youngsters plot the kidnapping of a mentally challenged young woman (Namita Krishnamurthy) with the help of her maid. The third one and the main one revolves around Anuradha (Tamannaah), a computer expert, and her struggle with selling a house that belongs to her father, Ganesan (GM Kumar), a crime writer with the second stage of Alzheimer's. As suggested in the synopsis, when Ganesan is found in a crime scene, Anuradha and her friends Malarmanan (Vivek Prasannan) and the helper, Chitra (Myna Nandhini) decide to cover it up and unveil the real killer.
The story is intriguing and there is an underlying mystery or even traces of horror that surrounds the characters. The dark mood that director Indhra sustains helps us to stay engaged in the hovering mystery. I like the sharp dialogues of Indhra and how he has extracted some fine performances by the strong cast ensemble throughout. Like in a good crime novel, Indhra keeps feeding us pieces of information in every episode that seem to be connected and the layers he stacked upon using subplots is just impressively mind-boggling. The thriller is also backed up with a strong emotional arc and build-ups which brings the characters and their motivations closer to us.
Thanks to the medium of OTT, Indhra has also stayed true to the genre and has gone a few notches up with the gore and explicitly, something which Indian filmmakers are tied up with when making films for theatres and series for mainstream Television. Given that some key scenes are set in the mortuary, there is quite a bit of blood (and even partial nudity), and one crucial scene involving a pregnant woman is not for the faint-hearted. The good thing is that the gore feels necessary for the story that exposes a very brutal issue. The episode of the crime novel writer, Ganesan decoding his own case without knowing that flexes some good writing.
On the downside, some of the surprises are easily guessable, like the probable murderer, and this is largely due to casting (you will know why when you see it). The initial episodes (almost half of the series)can be very slow as Indhra takes a lot of time in the world-building of the series. This can be a big drawback as I think most of the target audience they are aiming at might not favor consuming threads of visual storytelling and snail-paced interlinking non-linear scenes. For a crime series, the cop track should be quite detailed and passive in order for us to feel the urgency. This is one aspect that ‘November Story’ totally missed the mark. Instead of Sudalai (Aruldoss) deducing the case, we get scenes that literally spell out the connections that unveil the mystery. These shortcomings of the story get shadowed by the memorable climax.
Tamannaah gets an all-rounded role after a long time and she has grabbed it tightly with a seasoned performance. She underplays most of the time and she conveys her immense stress through her powerful eyes. GM Kumar as the aging crime writer is just perfect in his role while Aruldoss, though good as the cop, his character needed a better closure. As usual, Pasupathy impresses with his arresting performance and I hope he accelerates once again. In addition, ‘November Story’ also has good production value with sleek cinematography, intricate production design, and haunting score which in the end makes the entire package a satisfying watch.
VERDICT:
Despite the predictability and snail pace, ‘November Story’ is a decent and bold murder mystery thriller series that grows on you through the delicately designed characters driven by a strong emotional spine.
CELLULOID METER- 3.25/5:
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