NEE ENGE EN ANBE MOVIE REVIEW

Remaking a successful film is a very tricky and arduous task and the difficulty increases many folds, if the original is a critically-acclaimed film. Vidya Balan's 2012 starrer, 'Kahaani' is considered as a contemporary classic in the thriller genre and is acclaimed for its pulsating twists & turns filled screenplay. Sekhar Kammula has been roped in for this bilingual, which has Nayanthara, enacting the role made memorable by Vidya Balan. Can this adaptation retain the same tenacity and fervor of the original ?

If you have watched the original, you must be aware that the whole film is a one-woman show, and Nayanthara has done some sort of justice to the lead role of 'Anaamika'. She understands the nuances of her character well and has delivered a rather decent performance. She does have the commanding screen presence and ability to carry the whole film on her shoulders. And as always it is, she looks fabulous in her sarees ! It would have been better if she could have dubbed for herself, though Deepa Venkat's dubbing was apt. Vaibhav Reddy, who plays a rookie cop, delivers a measured performance, with a serious demeanor throughout the film. Pasupathy, is finally back to the silver screens after some time. As the Special Agent, he fits the character quite well, though the characterization was a tad too loud and lacks depth. A better handling of his character by the director, would have yielded better results. Naresh, Sri Ranjini, Harshvardhan Rane, Thagubothu Ramesh, Vinay Varma and etc were befitting of their roles.

Technically, 'Nee Enge En Anbe' does have some good and decent efforts from the technical crew. Nishka Lulla, had designed the costumes for Nayanthara and our lady was simply gorgeous in her attire. But still the necessity for such good-looks for a grim subject is a different perspective, which needs to be questioned. 'Dragon' Prakash handles the action choreography and his work sufficed the needs of the script. Chinna handles the art direction, and he has done a really good work with the props. The hotel room setting and the area around the hotel, ie the road-side stalls, the Durga Dewi shrine and the busy market, were realistically drawn and has splendor in the detailing, especially for the festival like celebration sequence, in the climax. Editing is taken care by Marthand K.Venkatesh, and he keeps the film tight and concise with the duration, although the climax could have been laid out better, which would have added more intensity to the proceedings. Vijay C.Kumar's cinematography stands out, for the raw and gritty look he gave for the film. The color tone and the camera movements, complement the script's mood and feel, pretty well. The charm of the old Hyderabad and the Charminar, as well as that part of Hyderabad's lifestyle was well captured, with plenty of outdoor shots. Music is by veteran M.M Keeravani or credited as Maragathamani in Tamizh. The film would have lost its lustre, if it wasn't for this man's background score. The score was thumping and plays like another character in the film. Only two songs are there in the film in which, "Evvidam Naan" is a montage track, whereas "Aval Appadi" appears during the end credits. Kudos to the M.M Keeravani once again, for the splendid background score, especially with a Qawwali-piece !

The original 'Kahaani' was conceived by Sujay Ghosh and co-written with novelist Advaita Kala. The killer screenplay was developed by a team of writers, consisting of Sujay Ghosh, Suresh Nair and Nikhil Vyas. For the remake, director Sekhar Kammula has joined hands with veteran renowned Telugu novelist Yandamuri Veerendranath. The screenplay adaptation, disappointingly is not as good as the Hindi original. The first half does not set the needed pace and most of the important sequences, fall flat. There is not gist and vigour in the screenplay, nor any attention-grabbing scenes. The characters were not well-etched out and makes a glaring statement of the director's substandard handling of characterizations. Also, a number of loopholes and mistakes are evident in the film, which the writing and direction team failed to take notice of. But what irks most is the half-baked attempt in presenting a proper bilingual. Some Telugu dialogues were just directly dubbed into Tamizh, which gives the film, a dubbing-film like look, in spite of Brinda Sarathy and Mahesh Sai's Tamizh dialogues. Some dialogues do stand out, such as the ones written for the interrogation scenes. There are plenty of Telugu dialogues in the film, which the script demands, but better subtitling could have helped the audience in comprehending, what's being said and argued. Apart from all these, one should take note that the writing duo has significantly changed the original 'Kahaani's plot and screenplay, and has altered the important twists & turns apparent in the original. To put it bluntly, 'Nee Enge En Anbe' looks like a simplified version of 'Kahaani'.

'Nee Enge En Anbe' - No where near 'Kahaani', yet its a decent watch. Wonder, why the producers insisted for such a low-appealing title. Hmmm.


Ratings: 2.75/5 STARS

BY:TAMIL