When one is remaking a movie, there are lot of factors that need to be done with a lot more care because comparisons with the original is all but natural.
One of the most important factors in a remake is the title.
Some movies resort to translations (Bodyguard became Kavalan) and some retain the same title (Premam was Premam, Pokkiri remained Pokkiri).
However, when going for a complete change, it is doubly important that the makers get it right.
Special 26 became an instantly relatable “Thaana Serndha Kootam” and to an extent even ‘Nanban’ was a decent substitute for 3 Idiots.
The first drawback for the Priyadarshan-directed Udhayanidhi Stalin starrer Nimir is that the title pales in comparison with ‘Maheshinte Prathikaaram(MP)’ (Mahesh ‘s revenge)
The original Malayalam title sets the tone of the movie only to pull the rug from under the audience’s perception.
Nimir begins similar to MP by showing the importance of the protagonist’s slippers. However, there is a lot more showboating in the Tamil version where the protagonist holds it while surfacing out of a running stream in a way that is somewhat reminiscent of Bahubali ‘s Sivagami holding Amarendra over the running stream. (Sorry)
Priyadarshan gets half his work done by deciding to shoot the movie in Tenkasi, a place that is filled with lush locales and the town’s proximity to Kerala allows a smattering of Malayalam accent without it feeling forced.
If one compares Nimir with MP, then right from the first song till the end, the remake falls flat in many avenues. The rustic and soulful nature of the original fails to translate on to the big screen in its Tamil version.
MP is a far superior movie. Period.
But, Nimir is not all that bad. It does have its moments.
The movie is about ‘National’ Selvam(Udhayanidhi Stalin), a photographer whose life surrounds his father(Director Mahendran), his studio, his uncle(MS Bhaskar) and his girlfriend Valli(Parvathi Nair).
Parvathi gets a raw deal in the movie and even though she is decent in what she gets to do, she looks so out of place in this particular setting.
Her character is half-baked and she is written as someone who is solely money-minded without an iota of compassion.
Considering the fact that this movie takes its own sweet time to get to the central plot point, the absence of scenes to develop her character arc a tad bit better to understand why Valli behaves in this particular way is plain insipid.
There is a heart-break somewhere in between and for a movie that is accused of being laid back and sluggish, the scenes actually chug along pretty rapidly one remade scene after the other.
Somehow, a la the butterfly effect, a freak fight involving a property dispute in one end of the town sets the wheels in motion that goes through a variety of incidents including an unnecessary reference to Bigg Boss to finally end in an altercation between the characters played by Udhayanidhi and Samuthirakani in one other end of the town.
Selvam’s slippers then become the focal point of a vow he takes to avenge his pride.
The ingenuity of the Malayalam script and probably the belief of MP director Dileesh Pothan in his audience convinced him of the incredulous post-interval scenes that play out more like a love story and less of a revenge drama.
The Tamil version follows a similar line but the subtleties and slight nudges and winks about the “Hero” trope that made the Malayalam movie shine bright seems underwhelming in Nimir.
Namita Pramod in her Tamil debut makes a half-decent foray into Tamil Cinema in a role that makes Selvam fall in love with photography and her in such quick time that it feels forced rather than organic.
The battalion of supporting characters including Bhaskar, Mahendran, Karunakaran, Ganja Karuppu are half-decent in their portrayal of the everyday men in a quaint town.
Udhayanidhi as Selvam, is half-decent in a role that was played by someone who is now considered this generation’s most effortless actor – Fahadh Fazil.
But full credit to Udhayanidhi for not trying to do anything remotely similar to Fahadh.
Was it because the director and the actor were smart enough to not try emulating Fahadh’s portrayal of Mahesh or was Udhayanidhi simply not able to, is a different thing altogether.
But, to give credit where it’s due, though Udhayanidhi’s original movie choices might be highly questionable, his remake choices are spot on.
His acting is improving with every movie and he is not exactly weighed down by a role that looks a cakewalk on paper but is filled with a lot of underlying layers.
Udhayanidhi does manage to scrape a few layers, but for now, his penchant for choosing scripts far outweighs his half-decent acting chops.
The major problem with Nimir is that everything is half-decent.
Priyadarshan, owing to his previous attempts at remaking Malayalam movies into Tamil (Lesa Lesa was a disaster), seems to be happy with taking the middle road.
He has neither gone all the way to cater to a core Tamil audience nor has he tried to veer away from the original just enough to have made this movie his own. He’s faithful to the original, but makes changes where it probably wasn’t exactly necessary.
It is not easy to remake the recent crop of Malayalam movies starring actors like Fahadh, Dulquer Salman, Nivin Pauly etc…
These movies are very rooted in the Kerala milieu and not all movies carry a universal appeal.
However, a positive reception to Nimir can open the floodgates to remakes of quite a number of interesting Malayalam movies.
There is a sense of allure to movies like 1983 or Action Hero Biju of Nivin Pauly, Dulquer’s Kali or even Biju Menon ‘s Rakshadikari Baiju Oppu or Jayasurya ‘s Aadu series that could warrant a Tamil version with our young actors(not stars).
The time is ripe for halting remakes of mindless Hindi and Telugu commercial blockbusters and instead focus on well-written irreverent cinema.
But all said and done, don’t even try to touch “Thondimuthalum Drikshaashigalum”…
Avinash Ramachandran 