I am sure most of you would have watched the intriguing court drama “Pink” which dealt with a very sensitive subject (about consent of women for sex). When you choose this subject for a remake with Thala “Ajith” as the protagonist, then you better get it right. Director H Vinoth shines here – not just by having it remade with utmost sincerity but also by adding right amount of “mass” elements mixed in the right place to satisfy the star’s ever growing fan base. The title “Nerkonda Paarvai” looks very apt to the character and to the film as well.
The story revolves around three women (Meera, Famitha and Andrea) who are falsely accused for an attempt to murder involving three influential guys who actually try to molest them in a resort. Since it’s an influential case none of the lawyers come forward to take up the case. However, they get some support from one of their neighbour Bharath Subramanian (Ajith Kumar) who is a non-practising lawyer. After some incidents, he decides to take up the case himself. Bharath has the job of not just saving the women from the false case but also to justify their conduct. The rest of the film is set as a courtroom drama between Bharath and Sathyamurthy (Rangaraj Pandey as the opposition lawyer).
In few moments into the film, we are made to forget the “mass” appeal of the actor Ajith we have seen in several of his recent films. Though he is shown as a patient with depression and bipolar disorder, the director uses that cleverly to add some action elements in the first half. Ajith plays the role with complete élan and conviction. His towering screen presences combined with the sharp dialogues lift every scene to a different plane.
Shraddha Srinath finally gets a good role in Tamil and she makes maximum use of it. Out of the other two girls, Famitha (Abirami Venkatachalam) has a larger role and does well. Rangaraj Pandey could not have asked for a better debut, a role very similar to his talk shows. Vidya Balan is a breath of fresh air in the film or may be in the industry itself. Hope to see her in more films down south. Among the boys, all of them do a decent job. Sujith Shanker (one of the most wanted and a talented actor in Malayalam film industry) makes his debut in Tamil.
Yuvan’s background score is good and he keeps it muted in most places to give impact to the dialogues. Cinematography by Nirav Shah is brilliant and captures the actors poignantly. On the negatives, there were some lip sync issues for some actors which could have been avoided. Not sure what Kalki Koechlin was doing in that intro song – through short lavishly, the performance was mediocre. Towards the end of the film, we forget about the illness of Bharath Subramaniam – there could have been more scenes to justify his inabilities.
Overall, Nerkonda Paarvai is one of the few films which ends up better than the original. Not that Pink was bad, just that this is much better. The message in the film is very much the “need of the hour” and having an actor like Ajith talk about it will ensure it reaches more people.
Rating – 3.5/5
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