NGK – Movie Review

‘NGK’, starring Suriya, Sai Pallavi, and Rakul Preet Singh in lead roles, hit the cinemas today (May 31). Let’s find out what works and what doesn’t.  

Story:

Nanda Gopala Krishna aka NGK (Suriya) is a social activist who lives a happy life as an organic farmer. His wife (Sai Pallavi) and his parents are his family but India is his extended family. When he faces a problem from goondas, NGK seeks the help of the local MLA (Ilavarasu), who asks him to join his party with his 500 followers. Yes, elections are approaching. This is how NGK ends up entering politics reluctantly.  

Once in politics, NGK learns that he has to be ready to do anything to be in the good books of his boss. Slowly, he locks horns with the opposition leader (played by Ponvannan) as well as the Chief Minister (played by Devaraj).

What follows is a tale of confrontations, machinations, and more. Involving in this drama is Vanitha (Rakul Preet Singh), a lady Chanakya who can control governments.

Analysis

First things first. ‘NGK’ was perhaps never meant for Suriya. Given director Selvaraghavan’s (aka Sri Raghava) style of presenting his heroes as unfashionable underdogs, maybe it should have been done by a Dhanush. In fact, if you see the scenes where Suriya acts over-smart and pretends to be too innocuous in the presence of his MLA boss, you might just agree with us. That is not his kind of act one expects from him.

Also he cries too often in the first half. And the characters around him are either too angry (his wife Sai Pallavi) or too dramatic (the one who prods him to become a political activist).  

In one scene, Suriya’s body language is that of an honest and sincere Singham kind of guy. In the next, he behaves like a typical Selvaraghavan hero who is weird. Is he good or wily? NGK was meant to confuse the villains but he ends up confusing the audience.

Director Selvaraghavan has been known for realistic scenes but ‘NGK’ takes refuge in wild liberties. Like in Vijay starrer ‘Sarkar’, our battered hero delivers an emotional speech and there is a rebellion. People watch his speech with the greatest interest as if they are watching World Cup Cricket finals, get motivated to do something and a new era is heralded. Is it that easy in real life? Definitely, no.  

So many scenes are unusually long. Take, for example, the mock speech scene in which NGK rehearses for his public rally. It goes on and on, with Suriya showing 2-3 shades in front of one character. Where was the need for this over-indulgence?  

The scenes are heavily bathed in Tamil nativity. But there is a bigger problem actually. Most of them look staged.

Talking of nativity issues, none of the songs (by Yuvan Shankar Raja) manages to register even barely. As if all those artificial basthi songs are not enough, there is an outlandish duet involving Suriya and Rakul Preet Singh. Almost every song is placed inappropriately.

Rakul is introduced as greater than the real-life Prashant Kishore. But the way her character shapes up is a let-down. This brilliant woman is wowed by NGK’s cleverness as if she never met a man with a brain all her life. Come on!  

Suriya’s performance is main asset. He shines though film bogs him down. Sai Pallavi plays an unconventional role and she does it well. The villains are largely bland, except for the MLA. Yuvan Shankar Raja’s background music is surprisingly ordinary. It’s much ado about nothing. Sivakumar Vijayan’s cinematography is efficient.  

Verdict: Suriya is sincere in NGK, apart from this everything is wrong here. This is one of lousiest, bland movies ever made in the name of political thriller. Clearly, Selva Raghavan aka Sri Raghava has messed it up after his earlier colossal dud ‘Varna’.

 

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