Official Trailer:
Navarasa – 9 episodes on 9 emotions. What is with the title of episodes – need to look it up to get the meaning for few episodes😒 While the series scores high with casting, and production quality, many episodes fall short on content and writing – generic to letdowns.
Roudhram: I liked this the most. Directorial debut by Arvind Swamy. Brilliant and engaging story of poverty and life struggle of a single mom to keep her children happy in an exploitative society. Source of anger written well and convincing. Kept me intrigued over the entire run time and I found the two timelines twist towards the end to be effective. Notice the names of the children, Arul and Anbu, but both are full of anger with no room for compassion. Also, what is interesting is on whom their anger is directed at, and how it consumes them (especially Anbu). I felt both the director and the writer understood the 30mts format very well and packed it with enough scenes – not too rushed or packed with unnecessary shots to fill the time. Loved the cinematography by Santhose Sivan👌🏼
Payasam: Not an easy watch – plot is about bottled-up emotions of envy, jealousy, loathing, ego leading to an act of disgust. Along with Vasanth’s wonderful staging, Delhi Ganesh carries the story with his excellent performance – we can feel the emotions he goes through – insignificance, self-loathing, grief and more 👏👏
Peace: Directed by Karthik Subbaraj. Not as powerful as Roudhram or Payasam, but holds our interest with the Vellaiyan’s rescue, a sliver of hope for peace and the final question. Loved the camera work and the long shots. Accent sounded odd though🤔
Inmai (Fear): A thriller with a mix of folklore, voodoo, and greed. Thanks to performances by Parvathy and Siddharth, an interesting watch.
Project Agni: Directed by Karthik Naren. Falls somewhere between fanfiction, science-fiction, and pseudo-science. Director himself doesn’t shy away from mentioning his sources – Nolan, Kubrick, and Matrix. You could guess the twist around 60-70% into the episode and it is a cheap one. For all the premise buildup, the finish is a big letdown. Stylish making, and performances (Arvind Swamy, Prasanna) keeps us engaged to some extent.
Edhiri: A powerful cast, Revathy, Vijay Sethupathy, and Praskash Raj let down by a weak story telling. Yes, I do get the what-if towards the end, but with events not leading to it felt unconvincing, came across more like a lecture.
Guitar Kambi Mele Nindru: Directed by GVM. Rehash of his old ideas and scenes. Repetitive🥱
Thunintha Pin: A dud. Nothing more to say.
Summer of 1992: Body-shaming to generate humor? Not able to grow out of it? Not able to come up with new ideas? Disgusting.