Ajith's Nerkonda Paarvai - movie review




Nerkonda Paarvai, the official remake of Bollywood blockbuster “Pink”, starring Ajith Kumar has won the accolades of many. The film is a solid remake of its predecessor and conveys the core message about women’s safety and consent as depicted in the original one.

The movie title itself which means ‘direct gaze’ is so powerful and apt for this flick which speaks about the day to day struggles of every woman. The movie talks about the double level of standards that women face in the current modern society. Released in 2016, the Bollywood movie “Pink” brought awareness to Indian people at a time when rapes, sexual assaults and molestation cases were at their peak. Both Pink and Nerkonda Paarvai movies have succeeded in inculcating that sense of confidence in modern women to boldly report the perpetrators when they fall prey to some form of sexual assaults.

The plot of the movie revolves around 3 women, Meera Krishnan (played by Shraddha Srinath), Famitha Banu (Big Boss fame Abirami Venkatachalam) and Andrea Tariang. They were falsely accused under murder and prostitution charges, after being sexually assaulted before by a group of men.

The hero Bharath Subramanian (played by Ajith Kumar), a retired lawyer who is suffering from bipolar disorder and depression, comes to the rescue of these 3 girls and finally puts the convicts behind the bars. At last, society understands how the world has become patriarchal these days through these folds of events depicted in this intriguing movie.

Despite Ajith being a commercial hero, Director H Vinoth doesn’t spoil the mood of the movie by limited the number of songs and stunts. ‘Thala’ Ajith Kumar must be praised for coming out of his comfort zone and for adorning this challenging role. The producer Boney Kapoor who has produced his first Tamil movie must be praised for this bold attempt. Credits must also be given to the director Vinoth for narrating the story in a sensible and convincing manner and that too particularly through the courtroom scenes.

The director has ensured that the movie never gets deviated from its original plot because of the stardom of hero Ajith Kumar. It must be said that the entire movie crew have given their best to remain true to the original script adopted from ‘Pink’. The only minor enhancement is the addition of a back-story to Ajith’s Barath character regarding his bitter past-life incidents to emotionally connect with the Tamil audience.

After a long while, we can see Ajith without any special intro and it is indeed hard to believe especially in the Kollywood industry! He plays a subdued performance in the movie’s first half and completely takes charge of the second half with his power-packed performance. The sole action sequence in this movie is a feast for Thala’s fans with Ajith doing a motorcycle wheeling, hitting back ferociously, and sending the bad boys flying up in the air and finally making the villain tremble with fear. Ajith couldn’t have done any better and he has indeed nailed it as far as court sequences are concerned.

The female lead Shraddha Srinath aces her role with a realistic portrayal of a brave young woman. Her performance never felt dramatic and stays up to the mark, be it the first scene or the very last court scene of the movie. She must be appreciated for accepting this challenging role and for performing it with so much maturity. Well done Shraddha…

Yet another heroine Andrea Tariang is an ideal fit for this movie. She has also played the same role in the original movie- Pink and hence it is almost needless to comment on her acting capabilities. Debutant Abhirami impresses all with her good acting skills in the narrow span of the available screen time.

Other actors- Arjun Chidambaram, Aswin Rao, Adhik Ravichandran and Thanthi TV fame ‘Rangaraj Pandey’ perform their roles true to their heart. Pandey was brought in as he recently made headlines for slamming popular singer Chinmayi for making sexual accusations against popular film lyricist and poet Vairamuthu. His character symbolizes all those men who use cheap ways for publicly humiliating women to force them into silence in these kinds of molestation charges.

Few hero-centric dialogues in the movie aimed at satisfying Ajith’s fans could have been possibly avoided. And Ajith’s version of bipolar disorder disease looks more like a ghost possession rather than a psychological disorder!

Vidya Balan looks graceful on-screen as always. The melodies of Yuvan Shankar Raja and the cinematography of Nirav Shah add that finishing touch to the movie.
The strength of the movie is its powerful dialogues. The director Vinoth has played cleverly in catering to the needs of the Tamil audience by making minor changes in dialogues and sequences without affecting the entire mood of the movie.
The film addresses several key social problems faced by women which include verbal abuse, trolling, entitled behaviour and pre-conceived notions about independent modern women. Nerkonda Paarvai is a timely film at a point when sexual violence-related crimes are on an all-time high and will provide means for creating awareness among people about the plight of such victims.

Released in big screens on 10th August 2019 all over the world, the movie is turning out to be the biggest hit ever in the history of the Tamil cinema industry. The movie is a feast for Ajith’s fans, as he has never acted in such a kind of court-room drama genre before. Since the actor’s fans are celebrating this movie like a festival, the tickets have already been pre-booked for the entire August month!

Several celebrities including Suriya and Jyothika have immensely praised this movie and have lauded the entire team for coming up with this quality flick. It was known that Suriya was very touched by this film and hence had also sent flower garlands to Ajith and Vinoth as a token of appreciation.

On the whole, Nerkonda Paarvai is a must-watch movie for all those who have not yet watched the Bollywood movie Pink before. And others can try it as well to see how well the director has actually visualized this faithful remake.

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