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Nayyi Navelli movie review: Labelling a good-looking, confident woman, unwilling to be boxed into the coy, submissive template, a ‘daayan’ happens too often even in this day and age. To decode generations of social prejudice and conditioning across genders is a chance that films should take, even if they fear falling under yet another dreaded label — ‘female-oriented’ movie.
When Nayyi Navelli begins, with Yami Gautam as the new dulhan who arouses the suspicions of her devar (Anurag Thakur) and his pal, you really want the film to deliver on the promise. Fronted by Gautam, who did a wonderful job in Haq, and an ensemble which looks like fun — the last time you had Mita Vashishth and Sushmita Mukherjee, both capable of delightful ditziness, in one frame was in the 90s — this one feels like it had so much potential.
Sadly, it is comprehensively squandered in scattered writing-and-execution.
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Right from the time Mohini (Yami Gautam) glides into her husband’s (Addinath Kothare) joint family, she doesn’t do the things that new brides are expected to, and each of those ‘omissions’ becomes an accusatory list, from the feet-not-dipped-into-aalta, to not-going-near-temples. Gasp.
The family, which is always to be found sitting in the courtyard of their large Meerut kothi, is suitably shocked. What is the secret Mohini is hiding? Is there really an artefact with amazing powers in the vicinity? Could brother-in-law Bantu — Anurag Thakur is the best part of the film — be wrong?
All seems ripe for a cracking yarn, wrapped in a genre that continues to thrive. Bollywood’s rediscovery of horror comedies being a palatable way to tell these stories of subversion since ‘Stree’, has become a flood.
Films revolving around strong female characters will always be welcome, but those stories need to be told well. Once the premise is laid, this Nayyi Navelli rolls over into a creaky rigmarole in which, amongst other things, nestles a sub-plot about a not-so-good-looking bua (Mita Vashishth) and her betrayed suitor (Aaditya Kulshresth). It is meant to be a statement against lookism, but leaves behind a bad taste.
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There’s more. A character declaims solemnly that Meerut’s roots stretch back to a yug when the events of the Ramayan unfolded. So there’s our Ram and Ravan, and the battle between good and evil, timed with Dussehra, with Gautam morphing into a flaming savior of all she surveys.
A disclaimer is safely in place to divest the film from the epic’s traditionally acknowledged source-material, but no one warns us the extent to which it will become an exercise in patience. The feminist angle, which gave the film its initial fillip, is forgotten, replaced by an unwatchable mess.
Nayyi Navelli movie cast: Yami Gautam, Addinath Kothare, Anurag Thakur, Mita Vashishth, Sonal Jha, Sunita Rajwar, Sushmita Mukherjee, Aaditya Kulshresth, Suneel Sinha
Nayyi Navelli movie director: Balaji Mohan
Nayyi Navelli movie rating: 1 star
