After seeing so many people,
including film directors, showering praises on 1 Nenokkadine, I have
thought of getting answers to few questions that puts me back in calling this
film a marvel. Firstly, I admire the great director Sukumar, so that reflected in
my rating of 2.5/5 for 1 Nenokkadine. I couldn’t digest the fact that
‘Master story-teller’ and ‘Master of detail’ Sukumar has left few loose ends in
the film.
Few people told me that I was
generous in my rating and the movie only deserved a 1/5 or 1.5/5, and some said
how you can like a movie where the entertainment factor is zilch. I don’t want
to discuss about them as their definition of entertainment is definitely
flawed. My concern is those people who called film critics as useless and baseless.
Some even used extreme language and labeled us as ones who don’t understand the
nuances of cinema. I take that statement with a pinch of salt. If someone can suggest
a good course in 'film criticism' or 'review writing', I will enroll for it.
Here’s the link to my review
Alongside praising the film, I
wrote few lines bringing out the negatives of the film. As every review of
mine, I wanted to keep this spoiler-free, so didn’t want to get into the
details at the time of writing it.
My questions are as follows:
1) When the news of rockstar
Gautham (Mahesh Babu) broke on the TV, it has alerted Nasser living in London
but not Kelly Dorji in Goa. During the entire stretch of the first half, Kelly
(The industrialist) tries to kill Sameera (Kriti Sanon) but not Gautham. When
Nasser has a close aide and partner in crime staying in India, why would he and
his team try to contact Gautham. The same job could have been delegated to
Kelly.
2) Why Nasser needs to create a
set-up of some small company and carve wooden statuettes in Pune. I know this
is to shift the focus of audience from his character but isn’t it fooling them.
He is an industrialist and can stay in some hotel and oversee the operation.
Nasser coming to India is again baseless. If my first question is valid then it
can be done by Kelly himself.
3) In the yacht and fire episode,
what’s the need for parasailing? Gautham can take Sameera to the boat and I
don’t know how the parachute opened up after traveling such a small distance?
After they accidentally reach an island, Gautham finds Sameera’s camera lying
on the beach. Now don’t say that skimpily-clad Sameera brought it from the
yacht.
4) Kelly paints all his murders
as accidents. Then after a futile attempt to kill Sameera in Goa, why did he
plan to attack her in Hyderabad. He should have created an accident to kill
her. It’s shown that he also has a local gang in Hyderabad, so what’s the need
to send his henchmen all the way from Goa (they also kill a police officer at
the check post – why all this?). In the fight that follows, the goons get
multiple chances to kill Sameera but they wait for Gautham to hit them and
fight with them. That really suspended my disbelief. Hence, I wrote this in my
review “There are few staples that are typical of a Telugu film and some of
them gleam so much that you scratch your head in disbelief.” When you are
making a thriller that’s touted to be on par with Hollywood standards, please
stay with it and avoid force-fit commercial elements.
5) In the song London Babu,
Gautham is seen dancing with Sophia to get a key and opens a locker and sends
an SMS to Michael. Why? Anyways he would be coming there, right. The director
felt that the song is needed to drive some story. However, it’s unwarranted and
stands as a sore thumb.
6) In the pre-climax, Nasser says
he and Gautham’s father used to work as co-scientists in a company and later
parted their ways. However, in the climax, Gautham says his father was not a
biologist / farmer / scientist. Now isn’t it a contradiction?
7) The director piles another
layer of disbelief when he shows that streets of Belfast don’t change even after
20 years. And Gautham’s house still exists with his belongings.
8) In the interval bang, Gautham fires a bullet, which no one hears but the heroine. She reaches him and after confirming that he shot Kelly for real, he fires few more bullets. Surprisingly, no one, including Sameera's boss, hear these gun shots. Later, they take his body to a forest and throw it into a well. How did this happen without the notice of anyone?
8) In the interval bang, Gautham fires a bullet, which no one hears but the heroine. She reaches him and after confirming that he shot Kelly for real, he fires few more bullets. Surprisingly, no one, including Sameera's boss, hear these gun shots. Later, they take his body to a forest and throw it into a well. How did this happen without the notice of anyone?
9) Now coming to the famous
‘plant-and-payoff’ Rubik’s cube and its clues. It’s simple and understandable
that whenever Gautham finishes the cube he leaves four different color cubes in
the middle. Yes, his father knows this and writes the clue on it. This is
beyond the comprehension of the villain. But when Gautham looks at the cube in
a flashback-intercut-real-time-scene in the second half, he sees the storage
bank’s logo on one of its faces, which is a yellow square inside a green
square. The objective is to make him recognize the logo, then what’s the point
in showing his (dis)ability to arrange the cube right. Another million dollar
question – the pass code consists of 8 characters written on four faces of the cube.
How does Gautham know the correct sequence – clockwise or counter clockwise? In
the film, he is shown turning the cube counter clockwise. What if he does it
other way around?!
1 Nenokkadine is a valiant
attempt by Sukumar to blur the difference between mainstream cinema and art
house classics. However, some masala staples and unanswered questions made
it unpalatable. That’s not all. Few moments add a new leaf to ‘Suspension of
Disbelief’.
I am waiting for the answers..!!
