Navarasa | Movie Insert Review | Netflix | MOVIE INSERT

  

Navarasa is arguably the motherof Indian anthologies. Nine films based on the nine emotionalstates prescribed by the Natya Shastra. Shorts, most around half hour long,boast of staggering talent. Directors ranging from Priyadarshan to KarthikSubbaraj to Gautham Vasudev Menon; actors such as Suriya, Vijay Sethupathi, Revathi, PrakashRaj, Siddharth, Parvathy Thiruvothu and Arvind Swami, who also makes his directorialdebut with Roudhram or 'Anger'; DOP's like Santosh Sivan and P. C. Sreeram; and music directors including A. R.Rahman and Santhosh Narayanan. The titles, stylized black-and-white close-upsof actors expressing the rasas, have been created by Bharatbala. The series has been co-produced byMani Ratnam and Jayendra Panchapakesan. The artists and technicians worked without payment, with the proceeds from the film going to daily-wage workers suffering during the pandemic. The sheer scale of the projectand the effort is laudable. It’s a gathering of greats, but noneof the films are flat-out brilliant. They range from competent to bewildering,case in point, Project Agni by Karthick Naren. It features Arvind Swami, having a bad hair day, as some sort of maverick scientist whodiscovers that our reality is pre-programmed. Naren tips his hat to Christopher Nolan and Stanley Kubrick. Swami is a solid actor, but even he can’tinfuse life into banal dialogue like: "My mind needs to be free and enlightened". And the lab where he creates this breakthroughinvention borders on comical, with this big clock and green liquid and this contraptionwith wires, that he has to wear on his head. But Swami shines as a director with Roudhram, which is abouta young boy, Arul, who bludgeons a man with a hammer.  The film begins with snapshots ofChennai, where the story is set. The colors are lush and bright, Sivan ablydistills the beauty of these hardscrabble lives. Watch a key scene in which these billowing pink curtainsunderscore the sadness of what Arul is witnessing.  As the police investigates the crime, the storyflashes back to what made Arul do what he did. The story suggests that anger is passed down fromgeneration to generation and hardwired into our DNA. And Geetha Kailasam as a domesticworker who does what she must, to give her children a few momentsof happiness, is moving. This is easily among the best films in the anthology. I also enjoyed Payasam directed by Vasanth S. Sai. The film, based on a story by T Janakiraman,focuses on the rasa of disgust. The story is set in 1965 amidst aBrahmin wedding in Kumbakonam. Delhi Ganesh is superb as a77-year-old man Samanadhu, who is deeply envious of his successful nephew. The film works on two parallel tracks, the joyouspreparations in the house for the wedding and this man’s curdled envy and resentmentat his nephew’s good fortune. Samanadhu’s petty responses,  at one point, he prays more, so that hecan avoid going to the wedding, are human, but ultimately, he crosses a line. The most anticipated short among the nine,Gautham Vasudev Menon’s, Guitar Kambi Mele Nindru, which means 'Tugging At My Guitar Strings',is also among the weakest. This is a story about sringara or love. Suriya plays a Grammy Award-nominated musician, who narrates his story of instant attractionwith a singer, played by Prayaga Rose Martin. Suriya is a charismatic actor, but he ismiscast as a hipster indie music man. But, he does his best to pull off cringey lines like: "When you meet a woman and she saysexactly the things your mother says, you know you’re a goner, hook, line and sinker". The music by Karthik is sparkling, but there was more chemistry in the proposal scenein Soorarai Pottru, than there is in this entire film. Though it is refreshing to see a woman unabashedlytelling a man, that she is attracted to him.  But in one scene she says: "Let’s have a go at each other". Who talks like this? Rathindran R. Prasad directs Inmai,which means 'devoid of'. This film is about the rasa of fear. It’s mostly set in this gorgeous house in Puducherryand stars Parvathy and Siddharth. She plays Waheeda, who comes off assomeone artsy and sophisticated  but whose past hides bitter compromises. He plays a young man who comes to her for a signature,but turns out to be something else altogether. There are some interesting ideas here about fearand guilt, but they aren’t explored enough. What stayed with me, were the vibrant flashesof the light turquoise colour through the film, including on Waheeda’s dupatta. What stayed with me was a masterful continuousshot, in Karthik Subbaraj’s short Peace. And the pain and loss on Revathi’s facein Edhiri, directed by Bejoy Nambiar. She is such a stunning actor. Edhiri is the first short in the anthologybased on the rasa of compassion. The film features a dysfunctionalmarried couple and murder. There are some lyrical passages in the film, but the writing in the short story is byMani Ratnam, doesn’t give us enough.  We don’t know why the husband and wife are estranged,which makes it difficult to invest emotionally. Many of the films start with quotes, ranging fromDiane Ackerman to C. S. Lewis to Rumi, which seem tacked on to add heft to stories,that aren’t written sharply enough to soar. Navarasa is bolstered by good intentions,some superb performances and craft, but overall the anthology doesn’texceed the sum of its parts. You can watch the films on Netflix India.