Review – NOTA

Film: NOTA
Director: Anand Shankar
Cast: Vijay Deverakonda, Mehreen Pirzada, Nassar, Sathyaraj, Yashica Anand, Karunakaran and others
Music: Sam C S
Cinematography: Santhana Krishnan and Ravichandran

Vijay Deverakonda’s much awaited NOTA is a decent political thriller that is interesting in parts. The script of the film has huge potential. Unfortunately, one must say that director Anand Shankar has failed to capitalise on it.

The film begins with Varun(Vijay Deverakonda), the son of Chief Minister Vinodan (Nassar), celebrating his birthday by partying with friends. As he drives back in an inebriated state, he is stopped by cops who tell him that he will be taking over as the Chief Minister the next morning. Varun, who was until then leading a carefree life by living in London and working for a gaming firm, suddenly finds himself thrust in the centre of a political minefield. But why has Vinodan chosen to make his son the Chief Minister when he is hale and hearty?

The reason is simple. Vinodan has deep faith in a religious guru and always acts in accordance with his advice. When slapped with a corruption case over the buying of air conditioned buses, Vinodan would have sought the advice of the guru who would have forecast that his fortunes were dwindling as the stars were moving places. To overcome the problem, the guru would have advised Vinodan to quit office for a brief while and make someone in his bloodline the Chief Minister. If he did that, he would resolve the issue and reclaim power shortly, the guru would have told Vinodan.

With just two weeks left for the verdict to be delivered in the a/c buses case, Vinodan, acting as per the guru’s advice and under the impression that the verdict would be in his favour, would have decided to make his partying, fun-loving son who has no interest in politics the Chief Minister. And that is the reason why Varun would find himself caught in the political whirlwind.

Varun is sworn in as the Chief Minister. However, his father, Vinodan, the ruthless and unscrupulous politician that he is, tells him promptly not to step out of his room for two weeks. He asks Varun not to do anything but just sign whatever officials ask him to sign and not do anything else. Varun is more than happy to oblige.

Two weeks pass and the verdict is out. Unfortunately for Vinodan and fortunately for the people of the state, he is pronounced guilty and thereby convicted. He is sentenced to a jail term in prison and Varun, who initially thought that his CM stint will be for a period of two weeks, is made to continue as CM indefinitely.

This time, however, Varun is not going to be the dummy CM he was meant to be. When his partymen bring the law and order situation in the state to its knees, the dummy CM shows his tougher side and is soon branded as a rowdy CM by the opposition. Luckily, the public like him and what was meant to be an insult becomes a compliment. But being honest and straightforward in politics is not going to be easy. On the one hand, he has to discipline his own partymen, on the other, he has to fight a vicious opposition leader Varadarajan and his manipulative daughter Kayal. Then, there are others with whom his father had links but who now have plans to eradicate not just his father but him and his entire family. With only Mahendran (Sathyaraj) an honest journalist who is a big critic of his father to guide him, how does the rowdy CM overcome all these challenges? NOTA gives you the answer.

The film does not work for three reasons. The first of these is the artificiality of it all that comes into play the moment the film starts. For some reason, the believability factor takes a beating and there is no realism in the film. The bus that is used in the bus burning incident looks more like a vehicle used in Andhra Pradesh although the words printed on it give the impression that it is owned by Chennai Metropolitan Transport Corporation. Some of the decisions made by the characters in the film are also improbable and come across as being ridiculous. For instance, when violence breaks out in the city and school authorities ask parents to pick up their wards, a mother, who is already late in picking up her child from school, takes time to buy a pencil box that she promised her child!

The second reason is that director Anand Shankar fails to tie up several of the knots by the time the film ends. For instance, there is a murder case that is slapped against Chief Minister Varun by the CBI. The situation is such that the DGP asks him to go into hiding for a couple of days as he believes that the CBI could arrest Varun. However, there is no mention of the case or what happened to it after that. There are several loose ends like these in the film.

The third reason is that the performances of most actors are far from being satisfactory. Vijay Deverakonda does not look the part for the first 15 -20 minutes. Later on, he improvises but not to a great extent. Finally, he ends up doing a fairly decent job of playing Varun but nothing that is worth praising. Mehreen Pirzada as Mahendran’s daughter has a very small role and she does a neat job of playing it. Sathyaraj is probably the only actor who shows his class. Nassar as Vinodan looks impressive initially but then disappoints in the later half of the film, thanks to some really bad make up.

On the whole, NOTA is only a shadow of what if promised to be!