Production: Dream Warrior Pictures Cast: Rakul Preet Singh, Sai Pallavi, Suriya Direction: Selvaraghavan Screenplay: Selvaraghavan Story: Selvaraghavan Music: Yuvan Shankar Raja Background score: Yuvan Shankar Raja Cinematography: Sivakumar Vijayan Editing: Praveen KL
Director Selvaraghavan is back with a political film after a long time with Suriya’s NGK and the film revolves around Nandha Gopala Kumaran’s (NGK) rise to power among the ranks of his party. But this journey looks more like a confused take on modern-day politics. In ways more than one, the film takes the middle ground in a lot of issues. While taking a middle ground is a perspective by itself, there is a lack of clarity.Lots of it, especially in the later half.
Suriya has found himself at crossroads. After demonstrating his box office pull in the late 2000s with films like Ayan and Singam, he has been trying hard to fit into scripts that serve both the actor and the star in him. While the films he did with new-age directors like Venkat Prabhu (Massu Engira Masilamani), Vikram K Kumar (24, inarguably, his best film this decade) and Vignesh ShivN (Thaanaa Serndha Koottam) did not work at the box office, even the ones with proven commercial filmmakers like Hari (Si3) and Lingusamy (Anjaan) haven’t had any impact. Which is why news of him collaborating with a unique filmmaker like Selvaraghavan felt both exciting and unnerving.
Unfortunately, their film, NGK, is a letdown, and doesn’t fulfill any of the promises it has on paper. But the fault, this time, squarely lies with the director than the star, who is the best thing in the film. As the titular NGK (Nanda Gopalan Kumaran), Suriya valiantly tries to inject life into a flaccid script that cannot if it wants to be a political wish-fulfillment fantasy like NOTA or a grounded political drama like Aayitha Ezhuthu that exposes the ‘system’ for what it is.
Much like he did with his gangster epic Pudhupettai, Selvaraghavan tries to construct NGK as the journey of an individual from the lower rungs in the system to the very top. But unlike in that film, he fails to give us engaging – and convincing – situations that chart this rise. We hardly feel any emotion when the highly educated organic farmer NGK is coerced into joining a political party. The scenes where he starts learning the ropes, as an underling to an MLA (Ilavarasu), come across as unintentional black comedy. And we don’t get how he manages to turn the tables against some of the most cunning politicians. We are simply asked to believe because he is an educated guy. The film’s tonal inconsistencies are jarring.
Selvaraghavan’s representation of the political set-up – as something that is mainly PR-driven – seems simplistic. The opponents that NGK has to cross to achieve his goal are generic, underwritten characters and are played by actors (Ponvannan and Devaraj) who lack the charisma to make them feel powerful.
NGK CAST & CREW
Production: Dream Warrior Pictures Cast: Rakul Preet Singh, Sai Pallavi, Suriya Direction: Selvaraghavan Screenplay: Selvaraghavan Story: Selvaraghavan Music: Yuvan Shankar Raja Background score: Yuvan Shankar Raja Cinematography: Sivakumar Vijayan Editing: Praveen KL
Art direction: RK Vijaimurugan PRO: Johnson
Director Selvaraghavan is back with a political film after a long time with Suriya’s NGK and the film revolves around Nandha Gopala Kumaran’s (NGK) rise to power among the ranks of his party. But this journey looks more like a confused take on modern-day politics. In ways more than one, the film takes the middle ground in a lot of issues. While taking a middle ground is a perspective by itself, there is a lack of clarity.Lots of it, especially in the later half.
For instance, The film opens with NGK involved in Organic farming. Why and what happens after that is a question mark? There is a subplot involving Geetham (Sai Pallavi) and Vaanathi (Rakul Preet Singh), and NGK has to choose his partner between the two. He wants youngsters to come into politics but keeps taking advice from an elderly person, Giri (Bala Singh) who looks like a caricature of MGR. In short, the film by itself is perplexed about what it wants to say, or rather how it wants to convey what it wants to. This confusion extends to the technical aspects as well.
Sivakumar Vijayan’s cinematography reminds us of his work in Kolamaavu Kokila, partially due to the combination of neon lighting and warm colours used. However, it looks totally out of place and doesn’t complement the story. Yuvan’s background score is good in parts. When the film is picking up pace, we are suddenly presented with a song that is not just a speed breaker, but a spike strip. Few scenes in the second half lack the purpose and adds confusion, eg. the scene where Suriya and Bala Singh rehearse speech for the next day party meeting.
Along with Yuvan’s background score, Suriya’s portrayal of NGK is astounding and the eccentricity of the character comes across well. But why is he eccentric is a question unanswered. On the other hand, Sai Pallavi and Rakul Preet Singh’s characterization by Selva is beautiful. He doesn’t treat them like dolls, and they both get moments that it’s about them rather than the hero. The film treats its women so well that among a group of henchmen, there are a few women who fight equally well. Writing such characters have been Selva’s forte and that is also one of the reasons why the film fails to engage you.
The film is highly predictable and has no new elements. There are issues with the screenplay to an extent that while leaving the screen, you still have doubts on why specific scenes existed. At times, the expression of the actors in the background crowd gives you strong hints about what is about to happen next.The opponents that NGK has to cross to achieve his goal are generic, underwritten characters and are played by actors (Ponvannan and Devaraj) who lack the charisma to make them feel powerful.
Selvaraghavan even fails to give us solid female characters, something that he is known for. The characters of Sai Pallavi, as NGK’s wife Geetha, and Rakul Preet Singh, as a PR strategist with whom he enters into an extra-marital relationship, are the weakest links in the film. While the NGK-Geetha relationship seems farcical, the latter comes across as something that belongs in a different film. To make matters worse, we even get an out-of-nowhere song that increases our frustration.
If we end up enduring the two-and-a-half hours, it is mainly because of Suriya who gives it his all, acting the hell out during the actorly portions and playing
