Navarasa

Navarasa turned out to be a mixed bag given the range of (on-screen / behind-the-screen) talent on board. The Netflix anthology very clearly scores more lows than highs, with just a few segments managing to leave a solid impact. The concept behind it is actually quite unique, and its tasteful packaging (from the minds of Mani Ratnam and Jayendra Panchapakesan) also makes for a great reason to get hyped about it. Is it worth exploring? Let's go segment by segment:

Edhiri (Karuna - Compassion): The performances (Revathy, Vijay Sethupathi, and Prakash Raj) and the score by Govind Vasantha stand out in this one. Plotwise, it was okay.

Summer of '92 (Haasya - Laughter): Priyadarshan's writing is weak, and the only genuine laugh in this one arrives at the very end. The actor who played the younger version of Yogi Babu was impressive.

Project Agni (Adbhutha - Wonder): Karthick Naren's project is an ambitious sci-fi thriller that could easily work as a 2-hour feature film. This is probably the only segment with a definite ending.

Payasam (Bibhatsa - Disgust): While Delhi Ganesh's natural performance is a plus, the rest of the segment felt like a complete miss. It struggled to evoke the emotion it was supposed to.

Peace (Shaantha - Peace): Second time in a row (after the disappointing Jagame Thandhiram) that Karthik Subbaraj tackles the Eelam issue with uninteresting results. The presentation here (also featuring a 13-minute continuous shot) is slightly better in comparison to JT, though from a storytelling standpoint, I expected better.

Rowthiram (Raudra - Anger): Arvind Swami's directorial debut is focused around a basic revenge plot but the way he stages the whole thing (with a fantastic twist!) is awesome. Santosh Sivan's attributes a certain rawness to the visuals which works. A slightly better closing sequence would have helped.

Inmai (Bhayaanaka - Fear): This has an inventive plot but the actual scare factor is zero (more like implied horror!). Performancewise, there isn't much to bicker about. Vishal Bhardwaj's musical score is remarkable.

Thunindha Pinn (Veera - Valour): Difficult to fathom that it was written by Ratnam as the dialogues are all over the place. The segment comes off as the weakest overall, with director Sarjun KM displaying no creative control over the politics it tries to profess or even the characters.

Guitar Kambi Mele Nindru (Shringaara - Romance): GVM's concept of love hasn't aged one bit. It's still superficially at first sight, starts off as platonic before sexy revelations are made, highly expository in nature, set against the backdrop of hummable tunes (by Karthik) and mug-focused expressive visuals (by PC Sreeram). Suriya's screen presence is unquestionable but the plot and its nuances feel like déjà vu.

Overall, Navarasa is an okay effort when it should have been downright amazing!