Nee Na

Dennis and Abhirami were two characters I liked from the movie Summer in Bethlehem and the main reason was the excellent portrayal by the actors which made those characters lovable. The basic problem with the movie Nee- Na is that the actors who do the crucial roles in this movie can’t make their characters look real and endearing. And because of that lack of connect; only the basic idea convinces you and the movie fails to stay in your mind for its emotional statement.

Neena is a free bird who is nothing like the other girls of her age. She works as a creative head in an advertising agency. The drinking, smoking, arrogant boyish girl finally finds a male as an interesting character when she meets her new chief, Vinay Panikker. The soft spoken smart Vinay is married to Nalini and has one boy. The movie basically tells us the story of the relationship between Vinay and Neena that changes their life drastically.

If we look at the change of emotions and the way the movie presents many layers of human psychology, there is a kind of genuinity to the idea. But as I said it is the actors, especially the title protagonist played by Deepti Sati who can’t convince us. I really don’t know what went wrong for Deepti. If you look at her expressions it is quite cute and boyish. The dubbing of Raveena Ravi also sounds good. But the combination of both of this failed miserably. And a share of blame could be given to the writer for making Neena a dramatic character. The movie isn’t that innovative in its first half, but a breath of fresh air is there in some places in the second half of the movie.

Laljose could have tried something to reduce the excessive drama that was there in the script. He hasn’t made the movie look dull, but still the kind of enthusiasm Nee-Na offered through its trailer was missing in the film. I liked the way R Venugopal wrote the delicate complications in relationships. They were less cheesy and more realistic. But the dramatic feel you sense in the rest of the portions in a way is a burden for the inexperienced actors. As they couldn’t convey those lines with the required depth, the sentiments don’t really work out. And also I don’t think the movie has given that much of space to Nalini to justify its tagline. Jomon T John has done a nice job with his frames. Music was fine and the background score was also impressive.

As I said, the dubbing and expressions of Deepti Sati was out of sync throughout the movie and that really creates a big disturbance for you as a viewer. Vijay Babu looked good in his minimalistic approach towards Vinay, but he should work on his “singing”. Ann Augustine was just about okay. Lena did her character nicely and she was probably the only actress who delivered the dialogues effectively. Small roles for Chemban Vinod Jose, Sunil Sukhada, Vinu Mohan and Martin Prakkatt.

On the whole Nee-Na has a content that demanded better actors to convince the audience about the depth of the emotional attachment between the characters. The rating for the movie is 2.5/5. Luckily the movie doesn’t interpret boldness as the license to get alcoholic.