Nee Enge En Anbe Movie Review
Director: Sekhar Kammula
Cast: Nayanthara, Pasupathy, Vaibhav
Music: MM Keravani
Remakes of popular Hindi movies to south Indian languages was a fad of the 1980’s and 90’s. Off late the success rate has plummeted, and that must be the reason why Sekhar Kammula, remade Sujoy Ghosh’s Kaahani as a bilingual in Telugu and Tamil with a lot of changes in its plot.
Nee Enge En Anbe on the face of it is a decent thriller, marked by an outstanding performance by Nayanthara, who is scintillating as she brings depth and poise to her character. Plus technically it is fab, with excellent background score by MM Keeravani which is in sync with the theme of the film along with camera work of Vijay C Kumar.
A NRI Anamika (Nayanthara) comes to Hyderabad in search of her husband Ajay Sasthri (Harshavardhan Rane) a techie who has gone missing. She lodges a police complaint in a station which is the nearest to the hotel where he was staying. A sympathetic cop (Vaibhav) tries to help her, while his superior cop who seems to know the truth is lusting after her.
Meanwhile, she stirs the state administration with her resolve to find her missing husband, and is thwarted by a cunning state minister (Naresh) and the honest intelligence chief (Pasupathy). Does Anamika fulfil her mission?
The film belongs to Nayanthara, it is a one-woman show by her in a difficult role. She nails the character perfectly whether it in the initial scenes showing her anguish or in the stunning climax, where she takes a brave decision. Vaibhav is aptly cast as a friendly police officer who develops a silent love for her. Pasupathy, at times goes overboard and his character has not been well etched. The others in the supporting cast are adequate.
Keeravani’s music and BGM is able to hold the film together, especially in the last few minutes where BGM plays such an important part. Vijay C Kumar’s camerawork moves with the narration and his lighting is perfect, old Charminar area of Hyderabad adds a realistic touch to the story.
On the downside, the first half of the film lags, as character establishment takes a long time. And there is too much of Telugu dialogues, without any subtitling and lip sync of characters at times go awry and gives the feel of a dubbed film.
On the whole, comparing Nee Enge En Anbe to Kahaani is unfair, as Sekhar has made far too many changes to the plot line. He may have done it for nativity reasons, but it lingers in our mind why the plotline of the film which has proved successful was tampered? This film banks upon the acting prowess and screen presence of Nayanthara, who impresses with every new film.
