Malayalam superhit film Drishyam had thrill, suspense and mystery, but it was, essentially, the story of a father going to extreme lengths to protect his daughter.
The new Tamil web series November Story , directed by Indhra Subramanian, reverses this premise: this tale is about how Anuradha (Tamannaah) goes to extreme lengths to save her father, who is the prime suspect in a murder. But it does little justice to the narrative.
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It kickstarts with how Anuradha’s life is ridden with problems. She is an ethical hacker but there’s a problem at work, with someone hacking into the systems. She is a daughter, but there is an issue with her father, a famous crime novelist who is losing his memory every day. She is a house-owner, but there is an issue with the house that she would like to sell and buyers are not too interested.
- Director: Indhra Subramanian
- Cast: Tamannaah, Pasupathi, GM Kumar
- No. of episodes: 7
- Storyline: A celebrated crime novelist suffering from Alzheimer's is found at a murder scene with no memory of what happened. Now, it is up to his daughter to save him
Every step that Anuradha takes is met with issues, and it is only much later that she understands that there is a connection between them. Does she solve her problems?
Anuradha has a lot of problems in this web series, and so do we watching it. The pacing is seriously off; it is poised as a whodunit, but takes its own sweet time to establish characters and also likes going off on flashbacks. The elements are far too many, and even slowly digresses into three narrative subplots. The writing does not hit the mark too and leaves many loose ends. Even the lip-sync is off in a few places.
But these problems are sort of compensated thanks to some good performances that go beyond the scope of their characterisation. Tamannaah puts up an effective portrayal, though her dialogue delivery and dubbing is a little off at times. GM Kumar fits the bill aptly, while Pasupathy is the scene-stealer; he scores highly in some of the crucial sequences.
November Story has seven episodes and devotes far too much time to the dialogue and introspecting the case at hand rather than actual action. One of the cops even remarks, “What use is just talking? Let’s go out on the field and try cracking this case.” We wish the director had taken that a little more seriously.
November Story is currently streaming on Disney+ Hotstar VIP