Review: Nimir

Cast: Udhayanidhi Stalin, Parvathy Nair, Namitha Pramod, Samuthirakani, M S Baskar, Mahendran

Director: Priyadarshan

Music: Darbuka Siva, B Ajaneesh Loknath

Cinematography: N K Ekambharam

Nimir, the Tamil remake of the Malayalam hit film, Maheshinte Prathikaaram, which featured Fahaadh Faasil in the lead, is a lovely story told in a simple and neat fashion without any hype whatsoever.

Selvam (Udhayanidhi Stalin) is a photographer who runs his father (Mahendran’s) National photo studio in a small town located in the southern part of the state.

He leads a very content life taking care of his father, a brilliant photographer who, neighbours and friends feel, has off late been acting in a strange fashion, and his father’s photo studio.

Selvam’s only dream is to wed his childhood love, Valli(Parvathi Nair), who reciprocates his feelings. Both have plans of getting married soon.

Life is pleasant for a while. It is under these circumstances that Valli’s parents bring her an alliance. They want to get her married to a wealthy police officer. Valli initially seems confused. But when her mother explains to her that her life will be more comfortable and settled with the police officer, she ditches Selvam to get married to the guy her parents have chosen for her.

Poor Selvam feels hurt but doesn’t stand in her way of getting married. Just when he is nursing his broken heart, fate plays a funny game with him which seems cruel at first. A strange set of developments result in a situation where Selvam is forced to fight a welder called Vellaiyappan (Samuthirakani).

Vellaiyappan, a troublemaker, gives Selvam a sound thrashing and the latter is humiliated in front of friends and well wishers. The thrashing is so bad that Selvam vows to wear sandals on his feet only after returning the beating he has received at the hands of Velliappan.

Unfortunately for Selvam, Velliappan leaves for Dubai soon after to take up a job there. Selvam has no option but to go barefoot everywhere.

Under these circumstances, a college student called Malar (Namitha Pramod) turns up at Selvam’s photo studio one day and asks him to shoot a good picture of her, which she says she wishes to send to a magazine as part of a competition. The winning picture, she says, will be featured on the cover of the magazine.

When Selvam shows her the picture he has clicked of her, she stuns him by telling him that he does not know about his profession.

Stung by her statement, Selvam, with guidance from his father, makes an attempt to understand photography better. He even ends up clicking a few pictures of Malar without her knowledge and sends it to a magazine which publishes the picture on its cover.

Malar, after seeing her picture on the cover of the magazine, meets Selvam and soon, their acquaintance turns into friendship and then love.

Just when Selvam thinks of marrying Malar, she tells him that she is the sister of Vellaiyappan whom Selvam has pledged to give a sound thrashing…

The film has beautiful shots all through. Ekambaram’s cinematography is exceptional in the film. Be it capturing the simple, rustic countryside or the majestic temple gopurams or the flowing rivers, Ekambaram’s visuals often speak louder than the dialogues in the film. The angles, the lighting and the choice of colours are all exceptional. This was expected as the film is being directed by an ace cinematographer Priyadarshan.

The film has some wonderful performances. Udhayanidhi Stalin seems to have evolved into a much better actor with Nimir. The actor’s simple, natural reactions as Selvam make his character a highly likeable one. There are no unnecessary sequences that glorify the character and Selvam is very much the boy-next-door, you are bound to meet every other day.

Parvathi Nair as Valli does a good job as well. She comes across as being cute at first and then, portrays herself as a calculative deal seeker at a later point. She plays the part so convincingly, that you feel anger when she betrays Selvam for a groom, who is better placed financially.

Namitha Pramod as Malar steals the show with her performance.Be it showcasing her character’s naughty side or be it portraying Malar’s mature nautre, Namitha is awesome. Samuthirakani as Veliayappan does a super job as usual. No wonder this man won a National Award for his acting in Visaranai.

Two others too have come up with fantastic performances. One is M S Baskar as Sada and director Mahendran as Selvam’s dad.

Of the two, M S Baskar is just brilliant while Mahendran does a really good job of his character as well.

The film has two music directors and both of them have done a fairly decent job.

In short, the film is a neat and engaging drama with a reasonable amount of action in it.