NEE ENGE EN ANBE
DIRECTOR: Sekhar Kammula
CAST: Nayanthara, Vaibhav Reddy, Pasupathy, Harshvardhan Rane, Sriranjani
CLASSIFICATION: TBA
RUNNING TIME: TBA
RATING: ***
MANY a time, a remade movie has surpassed the original and, even more frequently, the remake has bombed at the box office by setting a sad example when compared to the original.
One of Bollywood’s biggest sleeper hits to date is Vidhya Balan’s thriller Kahaani. Known director Sekhar Kammula has remade the movie through Nee Enge En Anbe, a Tamil-Telugu bilingual film with quite a lot of inspiration and some twists that make the production enjoyable.
Ask anyone around the South (India) and they are sure to give you a collective answer as to who is one of the best heroines in terms of acting and appearance? Well, it would be Nayanthara indeed.
She plays the role of Anaamika, a woman from the US who sets about a daunting search in the old town of Hyderabad for her lost husband, Ajay. Not much has been changed from Kahaani, as it was the rugged streets of Kolkata in the original, and this time it’s the old city of Hyderabad.
Vaibav Reddy plays the helpful police officer who assists her in finding her husband and they come in contact with senior officer Khan aka Pasupathi. Now with the investigations on, simultaneously there are sinister murders that happen and the twist comes through the later part of the story.
Although Kammula has done enough work in making the movie watchable for the audiences who have already seen Kahaani, the main character names could have been changed; like Bob the assassin, the terrorist Milan Damji and so on. It makes this film lose its own uniqueness.
In confrontation with so many events, Nayan and Reddy encounter a lot of struggles in digging up information and eventually the senior police officers try to convince her that her husband is a most-wanted terrorist.
Her emotions regarding proving her husband’s innocence are remarkable, and make you wonder how much Nayan has matured as an actress. The scene involving the assassin, Nayan and the police officer in the cop’s house is sheer brilliance, with the required thrills and spills.
Can a lone woman brave the odds and succeed in finding her husband, or will she succumb to a male chauvinist world of tricks and pits?
Of all the thrills and suspense clouding the movie, the biggest one came in the form of Balan’s pregnancy in Kahaani. To make it even more spicy, Kammula has shredded the main character’s pregnancy. This is sure to lure moviegoers who have already watched Kahaani as well. Hats off to the director for his creativity.
Even though this is a thriller by all means, the first half hits a snag with its slow portrayal, mainly because of the way Kammula tries to evolve the characters one by one. Saving the best for the latter part of the movie, the director seems to lose steam in the first half, which might be one of the let downs of Nee Enge En Anbe.
As expected, with the movie shot extensively in Hyderabad, it has enough Telugu dialogue among the locals, possibly making it a challenge for audiences to interpret.
Even though Nayan’s probably the best woman in South India to be retained in the lead, for someone playing a common woman in a search for her husband, her make-up should have been lighter.
The cast: Reddy and Pasupathi have done a fair job jarring the English-speaking sequences from Pasupathi; they live up to their parts quite well.
The climax is wonderfully shot and brings about the best in all technical parts. The music and background score – composed by MM Keeravani – throughout the movie is amazing. It grips the storyline with some immense and pulsating bass effects.
And without Vijay Kumar’s neat cinematography in capturing the darkness and thrills, this would have been a downer indeed. Finally, the director has indeed done the best with this remake, which is sure to be enjoyed with family.
Final verdict: It’s not the best of remakes, but indeed a must-watch. – indiaglitz.com