'Neevevaro' movie review: An underwhelming remake

In this week’s release Neevevaro, a remake of Tamil film Adhe Kangal, actor Aadhi Pinisetty steps into the shoes of Kalyan, an award-winning visually-challenged chef.
Aadhi Pinisetty, Taapsee Pannu in 'Neevevaro'.
Aadhi Pinisetty, Taapsee Pannu in 'Neevevaro'.

Movie: Neevevaro

Cast: Aadhi Pinisetty, Taapsee Pannu, Ritika Singh 

Direction: Harinath

Rating: 2 out of 5 stars

Remakes seem to be a safe bet for filmmakers owing to their built-in stories, quick-fix solutions, unburdened research, lessening the number of working days and other marketing advantages. But working on these recycled versions always pose a challenge for them in many aspects – the content doesn’t meet the original, may ruin the nostalgia and the project may end up as a catastrophic failure. And if it’s beyond our expectations with more productive and creative investment, the film will recreate the magic of the original. Hence, they are always tricky.

In this week’s release Neevevaro, a remake of Tamil film Adhe Kangal, actor Aadhi Pinisetty steps into the shoes of Kalyan, an award-winning visually-challenged chef.

The film also has two gorgeous leads – Taapsee Pannu and Ritika Singh – with equal helpings of some strikingly impressive action sequences, romance, beautiful locales and melodious soundtrack.
Much of the film’s first hour shows Kalyan’s work at a restaurant, love track, fight with the goons, regaining his eyesight and the most traumatic, momentous and disorienting upheaval he has ever gone through in search of his missing soulmate.

The second hour is the spoiler and it’s where the director feels jaded when the narration slips into race-against-time thriller show. But as a viewer, it has taken time for me to arrive on the same page as the characters and just when you feel you’ve figured out everything, you feel restless again with all the ridiculous humourless comedy as the protagonist resumes decoding the unfinished details way too conveniently ahead of the inevitable climax. One can’t help but wonder how can a police constable be ceaselessly ignorant and the hero alone is a polymath!

While director Harinath and writer Kona Venkat may have cracked a beguiling climax, they hardly invest in the rest of this sloppy thriller. The film is weighed down by gaping plot holes. What could easily have been a gripping mystery thriller is stretched into a cliched and predictable formula.

Aadhi Pinisetty is competent and gets a few moments to shine. With this film, it’s clearly evident that he is trying to fit into the shoes of a commercial hero. Taapsee Pannu pulls off her role with great aplomb. After making a confident debut as a kickboxer with Guru, Ritika Singh sizzles in a role that gives little scope for her to amuse the audience.  Vennela Kishore and Sapthagiri digress the story with their ineffective comedy. Cinematographer Sai Sriram’s visuals are embarrassingly amateurish, while the background is chilling and doesn’t help the plot.

In all, Neevevaro is a thriller with tepid moments and its sluggish narrative weakens the impact of the strong performances from its lead cast.

— Murali Krishna CH
muralikrishna.db@newindianexpress
@onlymurali

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