Nayanthara: Beyond the Fairytale Review: Beautiful, but doesn’t go fully beyond

Nayanthara’s latest Netflix documentary, titled Nayanthara: Beyond The Fairytale seems to have been made with two purposes in mind: to tell her personal story and to inspire. This documentary, helmed by Amith Krishnan, does both, with anecdotes from important people from Nayanthara’s life and with the actor herself addressing several topics on a personal level. With the wedding portions wrapping up the documentary, the music, direction and cinematography come together beautifully to make your eyes moist. Yet, with all the grandeur, love, heartwarming moments, honesty, and vulnerability, the documentary falls short, as it hardly scratches the surface, leaving you wanting more at the end.

Initially, when Nayanthara had just tied the knot with Vignesh Shivan, this documentary was announced to be an out-and-out wedding film, which was to be helmed by Gautham Vasudev Menon. While it is unclear what transpired in this period of two years, the film’s focus has changed in the meantime to traverse from the start of Nayanthara’s career to the epitome of her life, her wedding. The makers have made a commendable effort to get the quotes of Sathyan Anthikad and Fazil, who were the reason behind her entry into cinema. However, the first half of the documentary goes back and forth between her career and upbringing and the challenges she has faced in her life, whereas the second one completely focuses on her love life and marriage, leaving us unsatisfied of not knowing any aspect of her life to the fullest extent. With its poorly orchestrated jump from her career and relationship controversies to her love life that began on the sets of Naanum Rowdy Dhaan, the documentary goes through a very jarring tonal shift, making it a little haphazard.

The strength of Nayanthara: Beyond the Fairytale is perhaps how detailed it shows vulnerability, which makes their lives almost relatable. From her relationship controversies to the flak she faced for portraying Sita in Sri Rama Jayam, Nayanthara speaks about it all, respectfully and diplomatically. These are perhaps the most refreshing portions of the documentary. In a portion, Nayanthara addresses how she faced body shaming when she acted in Ghajini, at a time when there was no social media and no sensitisation regarding body image. Such portions truly reflect what it has taken for Nayanthara to position herself in the industry today. In the latter half of the film, we see Vignesh Shivan speaking about the trolls and memes that came after they announced their relationship. The confidence with which Nayanthara and Vignesh have let their guard down in this documentary is what makes it real, despite the very larger-than-life setting.

Just as we get an introduction to Nayanthara, about her parents or how she was pursuing chartered accountancy at a point in her life, the documentary also gives importance to Vignesh Shivan and his upbringing. We get an insight into his life and his childhood, and these portions seemed to reflect the love they really share. In a documentary named after Nayanthara, Vignesh Shivan gets his own spotlight, with even guests speaking thoroughly about their relationship. In fact, director Nelson Dilipkumar provides us with the most enjoyable anecdote of the lot when it comes to their relationship. However, after their love story is narrated, the documentary, which has so far been taken from a human interest angle, treads into the area of a pure wedding film, which initially seems like a misfit. As the wedding planners speak about how they planned a wedding within ten days, we momentarily disconnect from the documentary because it goes on to focus on a very specific part of their life and becomes a little impersonal.

Aimed to go beyond the fairytale, the wedding-planning portions of the documentary travel in the opposite direction. With the grandeur and the massive scale, it seems much more like a fairytale than real life. In fact, even Vignesh Shivan says, “The setting was very dreamy and larger than life. Naa andha maari oru kalyanathukku ponadhey illa. But enaku dhaan andha kalyanam.” But when Nayanthara dons her wedding outfit and walks down the aisle, you instantly connect with the deep core human emotion of true love. The film’s cinematographer Sharanya Chander gets it right, as she captures Shah Rukh Khan reuniting with Mani Ratnam for a laughter-filled chat at their wedding, Rajinikanth blessing the couple with fervour, and Suriya looking at Jyotika with love as Vignesh pecks Nayanthara on the forehead after he ties the knot. As the song ‘Mangalyam’ plays in the background and as a newly married Nayanthara and Vignesh look at each other, it is impossible for you to hold on to the film’s flaws. All you think of at that moment is how beautiful true love can be.

While a bevy of guests, including Nagarjuna, Rana Daggubati, Atlee, Nelson Dilipkumar, Sathyan Anthikad, and Upendra, explain what they think is special about Nayanthara, it is the quotes of the women, including Tamannaah, Taapsee, Radhikaa Sarathkumar, and Parvathy Thiruvothu, among others, that truly stand as testimony for what she has become. These women coming forward to speak with high regard about an actor, who is pretty much their competition, highlights the spirit of sisterhood in Tamil cinema.

While the execution may have been imperfect, Nayanthara: Beyond the Fairytale has much to love about. Most of all, it is extremely inspiring, especially for women of all industries facing little battles in their everyday lives. By the end of the documentary, it’s clear that Nayanthara’s primary goal behind the film has been fulfilled, as she mentions early on: “I just want everyone to have a little bit of hope, and I just want everyone to feel a little bit of happiness when they see other people's happiness.”