2019, Tamil, Zee5, 8.2/10 IMBD, Directed by H.Vinoth
A Near perfect honest remake, a slow paced non glorifying movie, where the stardom of the actor is solely used in shouldering the ‘core of the movie’, in rendering the ‘The Dire Message’, to all the chauvinist men and anxious parents of girl children, in this side of the world.
H. Vinoth under Boney Kapoor productions with ace technicians in his kitty , remaking of a blockbusting head turner from the north, Pink, what can go wrong?
There were many things that might have made this remake movie bite dust. For instance, the flash back addition which was not in the original, could have made the director succumb to the Kollywood’s sentiment to give the tamil audience, a tear jerking rape sequence for the hero’s wife, just to substantiate, why the hero helps the neighbor girls from a molestation case.
Or it could have been a daughter or sister whom the hero failed to save, making him vow that he will be a guardian angle for all destitute women of the world. Thank God it was, Deeran Adhigaram One‘s director and not Atlee that the producer vested his investment with. God saved us all.
The movie credits role out in pitch dark with no titles for Ajith, no back ground score and it sure does preps you for the kind of movie we are seated in.
The first half was unconvincing at certain places with the vacantly staring Ajith, but when justified later on, that the hero is in a state of depression after loosing his lady love and their unborn twin, just while he was held up professionally and nobody to assist his pregnant wife at home. Thank God yet again for it was not because of any weird, never heard of rare medical scenario.
The second half of the movie, kick started with the court sequences and it engages you fairly well. Even though you are familiar with the core story, there seem to be a sense of relatability in the star cast and the familiar language quotient.
Call me prejudiced, it did give me a bigger impact, when I heard Ajith argue in Tamil for the dusky skinned, ‘girl next door’, simple clothed urban girls, made me grow fonder of the movie.
Having Vidhya balan acting in Tamil is a celebration in itself. But somehow felt sorry for Ajith, as the chemistry didn’t work much. Would have been content if Nithya Menon would have done the role.
The girls Shraddha, Abirami and Andrea were totally convincing and Abirami stood out with her expressive lost eyes.
Shraddha fell a little short with Tapsee nailing the role in the original. Nevertheless Shraddha addressed the role in her own style of expressing the helpless mortifying situation in the court with her dad around.
The Telugu remake movie of 1984,‘Vidhi’, which ran successfully for a year in theaters, was critically acclaimed for similar storyline in different context pertaining to the issues of that decade and the movie ended with, ‘the then revolutionary verdict’ of not forcing the girl to marry the rogue who cheated her in the first place and rather punish him for his offence.
Here in NKP, similar escalated issues that our independent girl children face in their work environment and in the multi cultural society, gets a revolutionary verdict which supports the message, when girl says NO, it’s a NO.
Premarital sex, women losing virginity, women consuming alcohol, girls judged on the way they dress and their friendly body language, the movie addresses it all.
Recently we were left to dwell on the tamil proverb of saree and thorn, needle and thread kind of weakening nonsenses, making us even judgmental in the episodes of Bigg Boss, when a girl declares her love or liking for another contestant and stoops with low self esteem.
The movie uses the same old proverbs and hits bulls eye, in an absolute non preachy mode, how we women are coerced all our lives, with our biological makeup used as a weapon to threaten us from expressing our likes and dislikes.
Pandey was a let down. He could have played the role easily with the natural stern face which he wears on all his interview. But he lost it by his weirdo body language in the name of sarcasm.
The role in the original was a stereo typed one, but the director could have used pandey’s strengths rather than making him try an unfamiliar forte.
Yuan music wasn’t remarkable but helped us get in to the mood of the movie.
Have to give it to Ajith, for his slow paced intense dialogue delivery to make the impact loud and clear.
Kudos for him in choosing this script, as it wouldn’t have reached the masses, if it weren’t for a huge fan following mass star, Ajith.