Review: Naachiyaar

Film: Naachiyaar
Director: Bala
Cast: G V Prakash Kumar, Ivana, Jyothika, Tamil Kumaran, Rockline Venkatesh

Music: Iliayaraaja
Cinematography: Eswar
Editor: Sathish Suriya

Just when people had given up on director Bala, he seems to have come back with a bang!

The veteran director, who is known for making hard-hitting films, is bound to score high with his just-released Naachiyaar.

The film, an interesting investigative thriller, has quite a number of unexpected twists and ends with a climax worth cheering.

Naachiyaar(Jyothika), a senior police officer with a no-nonsense approach when it comes to dealing with criminals but a humane nature when it comes to dealing with the weak and the helpless, gets news that a pregnant girl she has been on the look out for is at a government hospital. Naachiyar has been on the look out for the girl called Arasi (played by Ivana) as she believes Arasi has been raped by Kaathu alias Kaathavaraiyan (G V Prakash), a youngster who leads a difficult life by doing odd jobs.

Naachiyaar rescues Arasi, who is being forced into a vehicle by some thugs. At the same time, she ensures that a special police team headed by police officer Feroz Khan (Rockline Venkatesh) nabs Kaathu.

While Arasi, who was working as a maid, is taken to the hospital for treatment, Kaathu is booked for rape as Arasi is not yet 18 years old. When Naachiyaar begins her inquiry, Arasi admits that what happened between Kaathu and her was consensual and that she wasn’t raped by him. She literally begs Naachiyaar to let Kaathu off, but to no avail.

In the prison, Kaathu is ill treated, humiliated and beaten, both by prison officials and inmates. However, he has no qualms admitting to his relationship with Arasi, who he loves with all his heart.

The police are relieved that this is now a simple open and shut case, with Kaathu admitting to being in a relationship with Arasi. They go ahead with filing a rape case against Kaathu as sex with a woman under the age of 18 is still considered rape, even it if is consensual.

Under these circumstances, Arasi delivers a male child. All that the police have to do now to get a conviction in the rape case is match the child’s DNA with Kaathu’s DNA, so that the criminal’s guilt can be proved beyond doubt in a court of law.

But that is where the problem begins. The lab, after testing, submits a report saying that the DNA samples do not match. The lab report says that the child Arasi delivered is not Kaathu’s, while both of them believe the child is theirs. Naachiyaar realises that she cannot disclose the truth to Arasi as it will shatter her. Without letting Arasi know that the child she gave birth to is not Kaathu’s, she begins to find out the truth…

The film has some commanding performances coming in from its artistes.

First among these is G V Prakash, who has undergone a complete transformation to turn into Kaathu. Right from the minute he appears on screen, his performance is just perfect. In fact, GV’s performance in the film is the best of his acting career so far.

Matching him move for move is newcomer Ivana who plays Arasi. Sparkling like a newly minted coin, Ivana owns the screen with a degree of comfort that only established artistes are known to enjoy.

Her natural expressions and her screen presence make her performance a joy to watch. Clearly, this girl has immense potential and is likely to go a long way in Tamil cinema.

Rockline Venkatesh as police officer Feroz Khan has a commanding presence. His performance beautifully complements Jyothika’s performance as Naachiyaar.

Jyothika, who is known to overact, seems to have come up with a measured and good performance in Naachiyaar.

The film has solid support in the form of Ilaiyaraaja’s music. In fact, the background score is actually the backbone of this film.

Editor Sathish Suriya also needs to be congratulated for keeping the film short and interesting. In fact, the film is just a 100-minutes long. This is a welcome change as Bala’s earlier films that failed at the box office were lengthy sob stories that would leave one both physically and emotionally drained.

Bala, through this film, highlights several societal issues.

The typical gory sequences that one normally associates with a Bala film is there even in this film but thankfully, that is confined to just a one or two scenes.

On the whole, Naachiyaar is a sureshot winner!