Does having the big names of Kollywood like Mani Ratnam, Gautham Vasudev Menon, Vijay Sethupathi, Arvind Swami, Siddharth & Suriya ensure an entertainer. Nava Rasa (2021) proves it is not, having stars only increases the expectations. The obvious ingredient for a good movie or series is good stories, everything else even in abundance doesn’t make up for its absence.
It had taken me nearly three months to complete the nine stories of Navarasa (TV Series) on Netflix. It gets my lowest rating of ‘Rotten’. Each story was only 30-40 minutes, except the last one which was long at 48 minutes. Except for a couple, most of the nine offers nothing new and fails to keep you engaged. I had to force myself to watch every episode.
The two I liked were: First was the Payasam starring Delhi Ganesh & Rohini and directed by Vasanth which was about jealousy, excellent recreation of the time-period in the visuals and costumes, brilliant acting by the two veterans; Second was the Summer of ’92 starring Yogi Babu and Remya Nambeesan directed by Priyadarshan which was about school days and village-life told from the life of a star comedian.
The two I had a lot of hope but failed to impress were: Peace starring Bobby Simha and Gautham Vasudev Menon was a scene from the Sri Lankan Civil war, an important subject but it came out simplistic, to say the least; Project Agni starring Arvind Swami and Prasanna was one of the amateurish science fiction stories I had seen in recent times.
The other five Edhiri starring Vijay Sethupathi and Revathi which was about cold-blooded murder, Roudhram starring Sree Raam and Riythvika was about childhood poverty and anger; Inmai starring Parvathy Thiruvothu and Siddharth was about greed, superstition and revenge; Thunintha Pin starring Atharvaa covered the Naxalite insurgency; Guitar Kambi Mele Nindru starring Suriya and Prayaga Martin was love at first-sight episode seen repeatedly from GVM’s earlier works. All these were tedious and unremarkable.
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