Of love, trust and doubt

Film: Nee-na

Director: Lal Jose

Cast: Deepthi Sathi, Ann Augustine, Vijay Babu

In Lal Jose’s ‘Nee-na’, Neena (Deepthi Sathi)’s notoriety is conveyed to the audience much before her appearance through descriptions given by her colleagues, in the classic traditions of grand introductions given to male protagonists in our cinema. When we see her, she’s in the middle of a party, sloshed to the limits and about to fall into a pool.

The next half an hour is spent on telling us more on the same lines about this character. She hangs around and smokes with goons, who happen to be her childhood friends. She picks up a fight with an autorickshaw driver who whistles at her, she prefers climbing walls to opening the gates and does all that is required to satisfy the popular (not necessarily correct) impression of a liberal independent woman.

It all feels a bit artificial, so much so that one feels the writer is ticking off these ‘defying stereotypes’ boxes with every passing scene. This constant hammering in of the way this character is, borders on the regressive and reminds one of the recent ‘My choice’ video debates.

In contrast to Neena is Nalini (Ann Augustine), a homemaker who tells Neena that they have nothing in common. Neena falls for her suave boss, Nalini’s husband Vinay Panicker (Vijay Babu). She literally bulldozes her way into the couples’ lives. It is only at this point that the film enters watchable territory.

We switch for sometime between Neena’s pursuit, Vinay’s reluctance and Nalini’s doubts, before the film takes a shift in tone, to deal with Neena’s alcoholism.

The one interesting thread through the whole narrative is the changing shades in the relationship between Neena and Vinay, and it is explored in depth in the second half.

Though the title suggests that it is the story of two women, the balance is shifted more in favour of Neena.

All that we see of Nalini are occasional scenes of her oscillating between trust and doubt, aided amply by a friend who specialises in planting doubts.

The two songs ‘I remember you’ and ‘When gravity fails’ perhaps best capture the intended mood of the film, which sadly the film itself manages to capture only in parts.

S.R. Praveen