Nilavuku En Mel Ennadi Kobam, the latest directorial from actor Dhanush, which features a whole bunch of youngsters, was initially planned as a Dhanush starrer directed by Soundarya Rajinikanth. But when the project revived after 7 years with this new star cast, the age category of the characters had dropped significantly. I am talking about the age thing here because Nilavuku En Mel Ennadi Kobam, aka NEEK, has that gaze of a millennial looking at the heartbreak of Gen Z as something cute and funny. With the humor consistently saving the film from being that usual breakup-patchup bitching story, Nilavuku En Mel Ennadi Kobam is an easy breezy watch with nothing particularly exciting.
The film is primarily the love story of Prabhu and Nila, who met at a mutual friend’s relationship anniversary party. Prabhu, who was studying to be a chef at that point, was able to impress Nila with his culinary skills. However, Nila’s father’s judgemental attitude towards Prabhu created friction in the relationship. What we see in the film are the repercussions of that intervention.
The Tamil movie sensibilities have a different pitch, and we have seen how they slightly overdo the subtle stuff in many of the remakes. I am saying this because, in many ways, NEEK feels like a wannabe Premalu with a Tamil movie texture. Like how we laugh at the events in the heartbreak journey of Sachin in Premalu, Dhanush is making us laugh at the in-and-out love story of Prabhu. There are sequences in the film where the number of Machas and Deyys are far too high. However, since the movie itself does not take its characters seriously, we get to experience its fun angle, and the script makes the characters regret the stupid things they say and do.
In some ways, Dhanush is trying to explore the mindset of teenagers who are unsure about everything. The romantic pairing of characters is somewhat unexpected, and unlike the old films that try to play it safe towards the end after establishing a triangular love story, Dhanush is like, let’s see where it goes. The overtly explaining lines given to characters and the general overuse of dialogues was something that affected the flow of things, but the same loudness was making certain scenes, like the “Which Sriya?” scene, featuring the three male characters, funnier. Considering the breezy nature of the movie, the color choices in songs and the abundance of party moments made sense, but I still can’t figure out why Dhanush opted for a wider aspect ratio. The peppy songs matched the rhythm of the film, and Golden Sparrow was already a big hit.
Debutant Pavish Narayan plays the role of the hero Prabhu in this movie, and the guy delivers a convincing performance as this hero who tries hard to hide his vulnerability. Anikha Surendran, as Nila, is the leading lady here. While the performance in the romantic chapter was fine, the vulnerable bits in the last quarter of the movie were really bad. Hearing Mathew Thomas in a dubbed voice, since we know his actual voice, was initially pretty disconcerting, but whoever dubbed for him did a really good job, and towards the end of the movie, in many humorous scenes, Mathew’s performance, along with that dubbing offers a lot of laugh out loud moments. Priya Prakash Warrier’s character doesn’t have too much screen time, and it seems like her fair share will be in the sequel if that happens. Venkatesh Menon, Rabiya Khatoon, and Ramya Ranganathan are the other important characters in the film, along with veterans like Sarathkumar, Saranya Ponvannan, and Aadukalam Naren.
The graph of Nilavuku En Mel Ennadi Kobam is like a sine wave. While the cliches in the story take it down, what revives the film is the semi-spoofy humor that looks at the silliness of the romantic equations and the characters’ decision-making. The movie is only 131 minutes long, and except for that first song, I feel the movie isn’t burdening its audience with entertainer formula compromises. Nilavuku En Mel Ennadi Kobam is a passable teen comedy that isn’t going to give you any high seeing the sequel announcement at the end.
Nilavuku En Mel Ennadi Kobam is a passable teen comedy that isn't going to give you any high seeing the sequel announcement at the end.
Green: Recommended Content
Orange: The In-Between Ones
Red: Not Recommended
