What is the best respect you can give to a movie from the neighbouring state? A movie which has been a trendsetter for the industry, making people across the world turn and look? A movie which crossed the rare 100 day milestone in our state, when our movies struggle to cross the 50 day mark..???
The answer is : 'TO LEAVE IT ALONE!' and let it maintain its own legacy because the expectations involved in the remake are a few bars higher than the usual films. And the threat with the remake of 'Bangalore days' is that most of Tamil audience have watched the film already.
So let's see whether 'Bangalore Naatkal' has done justice to 'Bangalore Days' or not..!!
What is it about ?:
This movie is a story about three cousins Dhivya (Sri Divya), Kutti (Bobby Simha) and Ajju a.k.a Arjun (Arya). While the former two are always under parental pressure, do not have a say of their own and consider themselves living in a cage, the latter is the product of a broken marriage and doesn't constrain himself to the expectations of the society. He wishes to lead life on his own terms. The trio always have dreamt of settling in Bangalore since their child hood and that becomes possible when Dhivya gets married to Prasad (Rana) and Kutty is placed as a software engineer, who both end up in Bangalore. Ajju has no other choice but to accompany them. What surprises the city has for them and how they discover themselves in the process of unveiling those surprises is what 'Banglore Naatkal' is all about.
(And a Big Hi5 to Anjali Menon for giving us such a story <3 )
What works out? :
The ultimate life saver of the film is undoubtedly the role of RJ Sarah (Parvathy Menon), who reprises her role from the original and has lived up to the sunshine factor of the film. She's just brilliant and adorable. She is followed by Arya, who has reprised Dulquer Salman's role and has done a decent job. Be it his carefree attitude or the chemistry he shares with Parvathy, he has delivered what had been expected of him. Definitely, the ever gorgeous Samantha's role as Grace creates the necessary impact on screen that it's supposed to do in the limited screen-time..
Gopi Sundar is the unsung hero of the film. Be it the songs or the BGM, he carries the film in his shoulders where he reprises his magic from the original version. This movie is Bhaskar's much awaited Tamil-debut and he has brilliantly handled the film, without creating much damage to the original.
The acceptable ones :
This being one of the meaty roles Sri Dhivya has ever played in her entire career, the only reason why she's here is because of Nazriya. Sri Divya has given her 100%. Yet, her dubbing in some sequences have not been up to the mark. Rana Daggubati's role as Shiva had created huge expectations prior to the release. But yes, he has done a pretty decent job with this.The variations he shows in his character are nice and the chemistry he shares with Sri Divya is also pretty good.
Similarly the role of Saranya Ponvanan is surely gonna tickle your rib and evoke some laughter, but still the performance by the Late Kalpana was epic. Still Saranya has managed to portray the role with grace.
And the disasters :
Unlike the original, this movie fails to impress from the start. It takes time to settle down. The first 20 minutes of the film looks plastic and artificial, especially the Maangalyam song (which was one of the talking points of the original version) was not executed well. The movie takes off after the trio settle down in Bangalore.
Bobby Simha's potrayal of Kutty was acceptable but his appearence and his stupid wig worked against him. It could've been much better if he was let loose and played his character like how he played it in Soodhu kavvum, as the innocent chap. He really needs to work on shaping his career path though.
Next on the list, Raai Laxmi or Lakshmi Raai (however the name is supposed to be pronounced) doesn't fit the bill at all. She looks like Kutty's sister in a few sequences and looks like his aunt in the remaining. She's just a miscast or maybe a disaster-cast. I would shoot down the casting-director for casting her in the place of Isha Talvar, which is not fair at all.
Prakash raj, (surprisingly) who reprises the role of Prathap Pothen from the original, (God knows why) has overacted in this film ( like miserably). It was shocking to see him spoil the role and the audience did burst out laughing in many of his sequences (to the casting director's credit.. please note the sarcasm :P ).
Finally the crowning disaster can be credited to KV Guhan who has handled the cinematography of the film. It's just a ruthless blunder that he has done. Bangalore days was so classy.. But the remake misses that class, like totally. The best example is when the dog runs up to Faahad as he turns up at Prathap's house in the original, the cinematography would've taken it to a different level, but that 'CLASS' was a big miss in the original. Somehow in Bangalore Naatkal, the breed of the dog changes (a Labrador puppy somehow becomes a Golden Retriever). Yes, we did notice that :P .
The Verdict :
The reason why Bangalore Days was such a out of the box hit, was because it wasn't just a film. It had some magic to it. And when the movie ended, everyone left the theater with a smile on their face. It brought a good vibe to everyone and THAT was a big miss in this film. Apart from that it is an applaudable attempt from the PVP Banner and Bommarillu Bhaskar who have passed the test, but sadly, not with flying colours.
Let us know which one you preferred- BANGALORE DAYS? or BANGALORE NAATKAL in the comments section below.. (Though we kinda know the answer to it already *wink wink)
