This could be playing the old tune all over again, but with every new film that arrives in theatres, you realise how deeply the OTT culture has impacted how we consume cinema. There is no patience to set a story in motion. Gone are the days when a narrative gradually progresses through its dramatic arc and earns its tension. Now, everything has to begin with a bang, even if it doesn’t end with one.
Cast: Yami Gautam Dhar, Anurag Thakur, Addinath M Kothare, Sushmita Mukherjee, Mita Vashisht, Sunita Rajwar, Pratiek Pachori, Sonal Jha, Babita Pandey
Director: Balaji Mohan
So understandably, Nayyi Navelli, the latest Yami Gautam Dhar starrer directed by Balaji Mohan, has a plot that begins midway. Raja Awasthi (Addinath Kothore) and Mohini (Yami Gautam) are happily married, but his brother Bantu suspects something amiss about his Bhabhi, who appears too good to be true. Bantu abducts Mohini, locks her in, and proceeds to share with his family why he thinks their daughter-in-law might be a witch.
Directed by Balaji Mohan, who has previously made some popular Tamil films including Maari, Nayyi Navelli doesn’t have enough faith on its distinct concept, which explains the technique of unfolding as a flashback instead of choosing the linear route. This decision to grab us by the collar keeps you in a disoriented state from the beginning, despite some of the jokes landing and few cast members being in good form. There’s never a feeling of settling down even when plot points attain clarity over the first half.
Maa Behen arrived recently, so the idea of perceiving a good, progressive woman as a wicked one has lost its novelty. And yet, it can’t be denied that Nayyi Navelli still remains a wild swing for its exploration of folklore and world-building, albeit with liberal use of religious iconography. But the film has bigger problems — it’s never entertaining enough. The first half, in particular, is shocking dull and muted in its energy, despite its zealous attempts at punchlines and small-town quirks. Despite a stellar ensemble cast, the humour (and the punchlines) often comes across as forced. Some of the one-liners work, but others feel equally out-of-place and too desperate to evoke a reaction. In this desperate search for humour, Nayyi Navelli consistently reminds you everything it’s missing — a courage to go all the way out and a conviction to sell that courage. The film is so busy trying to raise laughs, it forgets to raise stakes. So when Raja’s life finally comes at stake, what we see on the family’s faces is not terror, but just a sense of puzzlement, reflecting a self-awareness that they are sitcom characters suddenly shifted to a horror film.
The humour, eventually, is a cop-out device, against a narrative that is constantly stumbling to find a comfortable tone. It’s a strange experience — to watch an unfunny comedy — so we blandly wait for the other puzzle pieces to fall in place, because what’s missing is our yearning for an emotional core that keeps us tethered to the Awasthi family and everything that’s at stake in this wacky universe. If there’s any display of genuine filmmaking conviction, it’s during the ‘Awadhiya Ke Raja’ song sequence. There is an earnestness to the way the entire family reunites and returns home and, despite another forcible joke about The Avengers, the scene works to an extent.
Irrespective of the material, actors like Sushmita Mukherjee and Mita Vashisht bring refreshing energy to the screen, playing to the gallery and making the best of these rare opportunities. Playing Bantu, Anurag Thakur delivers the best performance of the lot, overcoming all the scriptwriting loopholes to create a character that’s funny and endearing, despite his moments of excess. Yet, it doesn’t distract us from the lacklustreness of it all.
Most crucially, a wild swing like this needs a solid star power at the centre to make it work — and Yami Gautam Dhar doesn’t have that. The actor is capable of intense roles like Haq, but lacks the conviction to sell a sequence where Mohini explains to her entire family the mechanics of her presence in the Awasthi household. As Mohini tries to warm up to everyone in the Awasthi family, Yami struggles to maintain a sweetness to these portions. While Mohini mentions all the good ‘feminism’ talking points and gently schools her in-laws about women’s invisible labour at a regular household, Yami’s delivery constantly reminds us that we are being preached to. There’s all the posturing, with little of the star power.
Whatever little chance Nayyi Navelli had of salvaging itself, it completely quashes it out in the third act — a mythically mounted combat between the good and evil, which becomes a never-ending melange of action, mythology, and religion, a concoction that is more annoying than offensive to our sociopolitical radar.
In the opening disclaimer, the makers mention that the film is heavily inspired by the ‘Maha-kaavya’ of Ramayana. My fear is we are soon reaching a place where it will become impossible to make a film without religious undertones. For decades, mainstream Hindi cinema has prided itself on helping us with escapist fantasies. Now, we are reaching a point where the on-screen escapist rides — even the dullest of them — serve as stark reminders, willingly or otherwise, of everything that's happening outside the dark auditoriums we are sitting in.
