Nayyi Navelli

In Nayyi Navelli, what you see is not what you get. Bantu (Anurag Thakur) is convinced that his bhabhi Mohini (Yami Gautam) is “Ramsay Bros wali daayan” a.k.a. witch and sets out to convince everyone in the Awasthi household that there’s more to her than meets the eye. This is when audiences are supposedly watching a horror comedy but what they get is only a few laugh-worthy moments and next to zero scares. The way these scenes unfold with scores of family members seated in the aangaan (courtyard) at times listening and wondering, and at other times berating and taunting Bantu in an exaggerated way, it almost feels more like a sitcom than a feature film. It doesn’t help that for most of the first half, Yami’s Mohini is seen only through Bantu’s dubious eyes and unending narration. So far so meh.

The flight of fancy scales unimaginable heights with this one. In director Balaji Mohan’s supernatural-meets-mythology comedy caper Nayyi Navelli, Yami Gautam plays a mysterious woman with special powers. On the onset, the film appears to mix comedy and horror- a template well established by the Stree franchise. But the film’s punchlines and wit soon segue into mythology. No harm there either, considering the film is one of the big Dussehra releases this year in India. However, the film quickly spirals thanks to a convoluted plot that infuses too many things into one story, making the second half extremely tedious to watch. The story of Ramayan has been a source of inspiration for filmmakers for decades. The entire concept of good vs evil is a theme that never goes out of fashion and can be interpreted in multiple ways. Nayyi Naveli, to its credit, takes a lesser-known part of the Ramayana and spins an intricate tale. It may not always make sense, but it still makes for an interesting plot.

Horror, comedy and horror-comedy may all work perfectly well as genres in their own right. But Nayyi Navelli proves that horror-comedy-mythology is a genre caught in no man’s land — or, in this case, no woman’s land. The film seems to have an idea but hasn’t the faintest clue what to do with it. Directed by Balaji Mohan, a Tamil filmmaker making his Hindi debut, Nayyi Navelli loses its way by introducing supernatural and mythological elements that are not only unnecessary but also end up derailing the narrative.

Labelling a good-looking, confident woman, unwilling to be boxed into the coy, submissive template, a ‘daayan’ happens too often even in this day and age. To decode generations of social prejudice and conditioning across genders is a chance that films should take, even if they fear falling under yet another dreaded label — ‘female-oriented’ movie. When Nayyi Navelli begins, with Yami Gautam as the new dulhan who arouses the suspicions of her devar (Anurag Thakur) and his pal, you really want the film to deliver on the promise. Fronted by Gautam, who did a wonderful job in Haq, and an ensemble which looks like fun — the last time you had Mita Vashishth and Sushmita Mukherjee, both capable of delightful ditziness, in one frame was in the 90s — this one feels like it had so much potential.

The first half of Nayyi Navelli plays out like the answer to the question: What if TVF Gullak is pushed into the supernatural space? There’s a quirky Meerut-based family. An ancestral home. Lots of squabbling. Plenty of fondness parading as noise and taunts. And an hour-long emergency meeting on the terrace (against an artificial background of the city that puts the hand-painted sunsets from the 1990s to shame). The black sheep, Bantu, is desperately trying to convince the rest that the newest entrant in the family is a ‘daayan’ (witch); that his elder brother Raja’s wife, Mohini, is not a normal woman. It’s like watching a low-budget courtroom tale. Bantu painstakingly offers proof of the last few months and the mysterious circumstances of her arrival. He recalls weird scenes, narrates eye-witness accounts, and provokes the irritated family members to punch holes in his narrative. All this while an inauspicious and allegedly possessed Mohini — who will soon get multiple entry shots — is locked away in a room.

Much before the cinematic spectacle ‘Ramayana’ unfurls on silver screens, we get its partial retelling, a mini version inspired by the epic battle between the righteous and the sinful. We have nothing against films dipped in religious fervour, but when a film tries to be many things at one go, we can’t quite figure out whether ‘Nayyi Navelli’ is a social film masquerading as horror.com or mumbo-jumbo folklore being peddled as a divine subject. From the word go, the film wears its social conscience on its sleeve. A sprightly Dadima (Sushmita Mukherjee) tells her newly-wedded daughter Pinky (Mita Vashisht) that there is no rush to have children; your body, your choice. And all these woke ideas have come to her from Mohini. Now, who is Mohini? The beautiful Yami Gautam Dhar. Only, in the film, her devar Bantu (Anurag Thakur) is a doubting Thomas and takes hours to convince us, and his family, including her husband Raja (Adinath Kothare), how Mohini is no mortal but, god forbid, a daayan.