Director Seenu Ramasamy created mild tremors across Kollywood with his last venture, ‘Thenmerku Paruvakaatru’, which was critically acclaimed and also won 3 national awards including the one for best Tamil regional film. He is back with ‘Neer Paravai’ after a year, pinning his hopes to reconnect with the audience through an emotional and social thread.
Story of ‘Neer Paravai’ is set in one of the southern coastal villages of Tamil Nadu, where people earn their living through fishing and other ocean allied activities. Arulappasamy (Vishnu) is a drunkard and good for nothing who is being hated by the villagers for his conning acts to snatch a few bucks for a peg or two. Upon meeting Esther(Sunaina), he turns into a new leaf and falls for her. He also makes rapid strides in his life, marries Esther and leads a happy life until he meets his fate. The entire story gets narrated in a flashback by the older Esther (Nandita Das).
With sea as its motif, the story nudges at a snail’s pace from the beginning till the end. All along there was hardly a moment to revere or rejoice. The initial suspense that was created was held tight till the climax, but once it gets revealed, we feel like kicking ourselves.
Pertinent issues like the violence against Indian fishermen and Srilankan refugee rehabilitation have been very much a part of the story, but the fickleness with which they were handled made it sound like a warning from a shrill voice.
Among the lead pair, Sunaina looked rusty without makeup and did justice as the young Esther. Vishnu was just okay for the role and his performance was not great.
Among the supporting cast, Samudirakani has delivered a matured performance and his idealistic talks every now and then about the fishermen’s plight was the silver lining for this confused theme.
Saranya, who won the national award in Seenu Ramasamy’s last venture has set herself into the mould and has given her usual performance which was nothing short of good.
‘Poo’ Ram as Vishnu’s father was another silent performer who conveyed emotions through silence and minimal expressions.
Nandita Das as the older Esther had an extended cameo, but her presence hardly created an impact as the movie already slipped into a sobbing soap opera by then.
Azhagam Perumal as the lively priest made his presence felt with his linguistic mastery over the local Tamil dialect.
Thambi Ramaiah who is currently making merry in Kollywood in the support department has been wasted and his presence could easily be forgotten.
Music by Raghunanthan was average and the background score managed to lift the film at times.
Balasubramaniem’s camera had captured the ocean and the adjoining lands with all its glory.
Editing was amateurish as in many scenes the lip sync went awry and there were some continuity issues that can be felt.
The ‘Neithal’ landscape (land that adjoins the ocean) as depicted in the Tamil Sangam literature has been metaphorically lifted to convey the emotions of the lady who is waiting for her man to return from sea after a rough day. Had the screenplay, acting and music worked, this would have been at least a decent watch.
Verdict: Boring!
Rating: 2/5
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‘Thenmerku Paruvakaatru’ film with a good actor and actress is one of the most hit film in tamil. Both actor and actress given their beautiful lovely performance in this film.All were expecting more films like this. tamil movies