Cast: Udhayanidhi Stalin, Aari Arujunan, Tanya Ravichandran, Suresh Chakravarthy, Ilavarasu, Shivani Rajasekhar
Director: Arunraja Kamaraj
Language: Tamil
There is a scene in Udhayanidhi Stalin’s Nenjukku Needhi that made me look up. A bunch of men from all ages and parts of Tamil Nadu talking about their caste and that of others.
Even as the words OBC, MBC, FC float around nonchalantly as the scene progresses, the casual-ness of it all is stark and makes one thing certain. Even in 2022, caste is unfortunately all pervasive. However, in this movie, those moments are far and few in between.
Nenjukku Neethi is a film about getting justice for the death of two Dalit girls who were gang-raped and killed by upper caste men. With one other young girl missing, the crime is being covered up as an honor killing. A remake of the well-known Anubhav Sinha’s Article 15 starring Ayushmann Khurrana, Nenjukku Needhi has changed its overtones to match the Tamil landscape and milieu.
Vijayaraghavan (Udhayanidhi) is a sheltered English-speaking police officer who has studied abroad. When he is posted in a caste-heavy town, he enters the battleground trying to get justice but has many lessons to learn on the way. When one of his subordinate police officers asks him ‘his full name’, Vijay only later realises what it means. But by not divulging his caste, Nenjukku Needhi tries to redeem itself from the upper-caste saviour complex issue that was critiqued in Article 15.
Some of the best performances in the film are by the supporting actors like Suresh Chakravarthy, Ilavarasu who are policemen each fighting for their own space. Suresh Chakravarhy is the name-dropping upper caste policeman who revels in his man-given space in the world, while Ilavarasu cowers in the background. Watch out for a scene where he pleads with Vijay saying that he will be left to pick up the pieces of Vijay’s honesty. Or the scene where he point-blank asks ‘what Vijay is’. Udhayanidhi, now a politician, also doles out some poignant dialogues without too many cliches.
On the other hand there are other moments that are tepid and almost lame. Udhayanidhi’s acting is nothing to write home about. His lacklustre responses go sour as the film reaches a peak in its quest for justice. The quintessential scene where the protagonist pins the Article 15 of the Constitution for all to read becomes unremarkable here and doesn’t really stand out.
Nenjukku Needhi could have worked with stronger scenes and a better cast to do justice to the script.
Rating: 2.5/5
