Reviewed by Kamal
The man who gave us classics like Minnaley, Varnam aayiram and VTV is back with a movie in his favourite genre- Romance.
Gautham Menon’s highly anticipated flick Neethane en ponvasantham has a story which one can highly relate to if he/she has been in love before. The story begins with Varun meeting Nithya in a cultural fest and the spark is reignited right there. In the first half Gautam gives us a picture perfect love story and the scenes between Varun and Nithya brings up one too many smiles on the face of the viewers. The half ends with them breaking up with Varun giving preference to his career over Nithya. The later part of the movie is about how he gets her back(Usual GVM style – He goes to thiruchendur this time and not Allepey or New york).
After being plagued by plagiarism Gautham Menon has given us a story that is original and relatable. He has stuck to his basics which makes the movie a good watch but its time he stops repeating scenes.(park scene). Jiiva as Varun gets a role which is a cake walk for him and does a neat work. Gautam has always given us a female lead that sticks to our heart and Nithya also does the same. Samantha as Nithya who is head over heels in love with Varun is beautiful and brilliant. She emotes and gives her 100% and makes Nithya memorable and unforgettable. Santhanam as Jiiva’s friend brings the house down with his one liners. Whenever we feel Varun is over doing Sathanam as Prakash is right there to cut him off with his comebacks.
The movies heart and soul is the music and Raja sir has done a brilliant job especially in Yenodu Vaa Vaa and Satru munbu. Gautham has showed his class by inserting few songs as BGM’s and not as a separate track. Cinematography by Prabhu and Om Prakash just passes and fails to impress us like Gautham’s previous flicks. Anthony, the editor does a good job and keeps the movie short around 2hours 25minutes.
The biggest problem with NEP is its dialogues. They are way too cheesy and makes us every other scene filmy. NEP is a perfect example of how badly written dialogues can spoil even a good scene.
NEP has its moments like the break up scene before the interval and the scene that leads to Sayndu sayndu but they are few and far. To sum it up NEP will definitely not have the cult following which VTV or Minnaley has.
NEP – good at parts but slow and lacks the GVM magic.
Rating: 2.5 of 5
