Nesippaya Movie Review: A subpar film with an intriguing premise
Nesippaya Movie Review: Critics Rating: 2.5 stars, click to give your rating/review,Nesippaya had so much promise with its cast of proven talents and an intriguing basic premise, but t
Critic's Rating: 2.5/5
Nesippaya Movie Synopsis: When Diya is framed for murder in Portugal, her ex-boyfriend Arjun flies all the way from India to get her out of prison. Will Diya be let free, and will she get back together with Arjun?
Nesippaya Movie Review: It's obviously hard to make a multi-genre movie, especially when it has a plethora of characters and explores a set timeline. In Vishnu Varadhan’s Nesippaya, there's romance, comedy, action, suspense and drama. To the film's credit, the cuts between different genres and timelines have been done smoothly, without taking you out of the proceedings. But even when Nesippaya is pieced together beautifully, the romance and mystery portions fail to work individually.
The film starts off with Arjun (Akash Murali) crashing his car into a school bus and hijacking it in Portugal. In between this intense scene, the opening credits pop up on the screen, accompanied by rose petals and Yuvan Shankar Raja’s romantic music. This acts as a perfect preface to show the variety that the film delivers, as Nesippaya is both a love story and a thriller.
The film then takes us back to the reason Arjun came to Portugal in the first place, and it's for his ex-girlfriend Diya (Aditi Shankar), who has been framed for murder. Arjun still harbours feelings for Diya and would go to any extent to get her out of prison. We then go back and forth between Arjun and Diya falling in love and breaking up to the present-day proceedings where the latter is in prison for murder charges.
Nesippaya is definitely engaging, but it falls short of being much more than that for a variety of reasons. One being the love story at the centre of it. During their college time, Arjun keeps on proclaiming his love for Diya even after she consistently denies having any feelings towards him. When he finally listens and stops following her is when she, in turn, realises she likes him too. After they finish college, Diya gets a job in Bangalore, and Arjun soon shifts there to be with her. He leaves his job and rather chooses one with a lesser pay to be with her. Arjun’s love, which can almost be seen as borderline obsession, is called out by the makers in multiple instances. Diya even repeatedly asks Arjun for space in their relationship.
But the makers leave us confused as to whether they are calling out his actions or justifying them in the name of love. The toxicity of their relationship is never fully addressed till the very end. During the big scene between Diya and Arjun in the second half, we almost feel as if the makers are on Arjun's side and kept the portions where Diya calls him out just so that they could make a point of having addressed the toxic nature of Arjun's behaviour.
Even when not all of his moral flaws are applauded by the film, Arjun’s character is still portrayed as a hero. And, therefore, when the film doesn't make up its mind on his behaviour and chooses to let it slide, it almost seems as if it is enabling that behaviour.
On a positive note, the action by Federico Cueva and A Sreekar Prasad’s editing is top-notch. Akash Murali has some serious screen presence and has his moments, but fails to convey the emotional turmoil his character is going through. Same goes for Aditi. She is convincing as Diya in both the lighter and the emotional portions, but when the emotions get too heavy, Aditi isn't able to channelise it and make us connect.
R Sarathkumar plays Adhinarayan, a business tycoon whose son Diya is alleged to have murdered. Kushboo Sundar plays his wife, Vasundhra. Prabhu (Gautham) and Kalki Koechlin (Indrani) play an officer and lawyer, respectively. A big reason for why the film remains engaging is due to these capable actors’ performances. Even when the scene, on paper, shouldn't work, their presence makes us care about what's going on. This sentiment is especially true for the scenes between Kushboo and Sarathkumar.
Nesippaya had so much promise with its cast of proven talents and an intriguing basic premise, but the film never reaches up to its expectations. The love portions are better written but promote (even if unintentionally) a questionable view on relationships. Once Nesippaya goes into full-on thriller mode, it tries to stick to a standard and seen-before template, which further works against the film's favour.
Nesippaya Movie Review: It's obviously hard to make a multi-genre movie, especially when it has a plethora of characters and explores a set timeline. In Vishnu Varadhan’s Nesippaya, there's romance, comedy, action, suspense and drama. To the film's credit, the cuts between different genres and timelines have been done smoothly, without taking you out of the proceedings. But even when Nesippaya is pieced together beautifully, the romance and mystery portions fail to work individually.
The film starts off with Arjun (Akash Murali) crashing his car into a school bus and hijacking it in Portugal. In between this intense scene, the opening credits pop up on the screen, accompanied by rose petals and Yuvan Shankar Raja’s romantic music. This acts as a perfect preface to show the variety that the film delivers, as Nesippaya is both a love story and a thriller.
The film then takes us back to the reason Arjun came to Portugal in the first place, and it's for his ex-girlfriend Diya (Aditi Shankar), who has been framed for murder. Arjun still harbours feelings for Diya and would go to any extent to get her out of prison. We then go back and forth between Arjun and Diya falling in love and breaking up to the present-day proceedings where the latter is in prison for murder charges.
Nesippaya is definitely engaging, but it falls short of being much more than that for a variety of reasons. One being the love story at the centre of it. During their college time, Arjun keeps on proclaiming his love for Diya even after she consistently denies having any feelings towards him. When he finally listens and stops following her is when she, in turn, realises she likes him too. After they finish college, Diya gets a job in Bangalore, and Arjun soon shifts there to be with her. He leaves his job and rather chooses one with a lesser pay to be with her. Arjun’s love, which can almost be seen as borderline obsession, is called out by the makers in multiple instances. Diya even repeatedly asks Arjun for space in their relationship.
But the makers leave us confused as to whether they are calling out his actions or justifying them in the name of love. The toxicity of their relationship is never fully addressed till the very end. During the big scene between Diya and Arjun in the second half, we almost feel as if the makers are on Arjun's side and kept the portions where Diya calls him out just so that they could make a point of having addressed the toxic nature of Arjun's behaviour.
Even when not all of his moral flaws are applauded by the film, Arjun’s character is still portrayed as a hero. And, therefore, when the film doesn't make up its mind on his behaviour and chooses to let it slide, it almost seems as if it is enabling that behaviour.
On a positive note, the action by Federico Cueva and A Sreekar Prasad’s editing is top-notch. Akash Murali has some serious screen presence and has his moments, but fails to convey the emotional turmoil his character is going through. Same goes for Aditi. She is convincing as Diya in both the lighter and the emotional portions, but when the emotions get too heavy, Aditi isn't able to channelise it and make us connect.
R Sarathkumar plays Adhinarayan, a business tycoon whose son Diya is alleged to have murdered. Kushboo Sundar plays his wife, Vasundhra. Prabhu (Gautham) and Kalki Koechlin (Indrani) play an officer and lawyer, respectively. A big reason for why the film remains engaging is due to these capable actors’ performances. Even when the scene, on paper, shouldn't work, their presence makes us care about what's going on. This sentiment is especially true for the scenes between Kushboo and Sarathkumar.
Nesippaya had so much promise with its cast of proven talents and an intriguing basic premise, but the film never reaches up to its expectations. The love portions are better written but promote (even if unintentionally) a questionable view on relationships. Once Nesippaya goes into full-on thriller mode, it tries to stick to a standard and seen-before template, which further works against the film's favour.
