Nilavuku En Mel Ennadi Kobam / NEEK: Uncertain Terrain

Star Cast: Pavish Narayanan, Anikha Surendran, Priya Prakash Varrier, Mathew Thomas, Sharath Kumar, Rabia Khatun, Ramya Ranganathan, Sharanya Ponvannan, and others
Music Composed by G.V Prakash Kumar
Edited by G.K Prasanna 
Directed by Dhanush 

Love can be described as an emotion that doesn’t really rely on regularity. It is an uncertainty that burns you alive. If you want to lose weight, you have to follow some steps. If you want to build a career, there are ways you can follow. Even though there is uncertainty, there are some fixed paths. But love is the only beast that consumes us with its uncertainty. Bringing it out as it is becomes difficult. Even if you wish to bring it to a calculative dimension, it still pushes you into a ghastly abyss under its incomparable gravitas. So, crossing this uncertain terrain becomes hard even for the senior most. To reflect it in a raw, awkward, and fun manner, you have to look at young love. That is Nilavuku En Mel Ennadi Kobam [NEEK] / Jaabilamma Neeku Antha Kopama in a nutshell. Dhanush tried to keep it light hearted while making it look as uncertain as it could be.

Spoiler: young love unfolds now

Dhanush, as a filmmaker, is not that interesting in his choice of material. It is easy to dismiss his choices as reaching for the low-hanging fruit. Take Pa. Paandi [2017] it is more about young lovers getting a second chance as adults in old age. They have lived their lives, and almost at the end of it, they find each other again. More bold and happening. Then take Raayan [2024], a simplistic tale about a brother who turns into a father when his sister is born, and who remains a father for his brother’s son too. In his life, his own brothers become villains, and he is consumed by the emotion of his sister being abused when he could have easily forgiven his brothers. Both stories don’t excite you enough to wish an actor turned director made them. Any producer would say these can be made by any director. What about you?

Dhanush found an answer in NEEK. Again, a regular run-of-the-mill story, and he even says the same. But what makes him so confident as a director to tell such age-old stories in his signature style? What is his signature style? Not going too deep into the psychological aspect – any person would want the world to remember them for what they did and what they stood for. But many lack the wisdom and “luxury to fail”. Dhanush has nothing new to prove as an actor, he even reached Hollywood, and all he needs to work towards is becoming an even bigger star. Well, he seems to be more concerned about leaving a mark that lasts much longer. Rajinikanth will always be remembered for being an “Everest among Stars” but Kamal Haasan will be the “best all-rounder.” Similarly, Mani Ratnam can demand any actor to play to his tunes, but he will still bow to Kamal’s mad genius.

What if someone could mix both? Dhanush seems to be sailing towards that path. Rajinikanth sticks to the formula but finds new ways to enhance it. Kamal Haasan goes away, then plays along, and tweaks it. If you mix them both? Be regular while leaving your mark – tweak it, move away from it, and then play with it. NEEK is a story where Dhanush openly played his hand. You see Nila [Anikha Surendran] and Prabhu [Pavish Narayanan]’s love story being simple, routine, and at times outlandish, following the formula. The tweak comes when the hero says that he wants a dying father to be happy and breaks up. On the other hand, his current bride-to-be encourages him to follow his dream and see if it still stands.

Now, the formula says the hero should convince the heroine, but Prabhu doesn’t even talk to her, and all the secondary characters start to run things between them. It is a bold choice, like Kamal Haasan playing a dwarf in a simple revenge tale like Apoorva Sagodharargal [1989]. Still, the formula is tweaked to a level that we are engaged to see how they will pull it off. While Dhanush lacks the same conviction in writing to reach that level, his ambition is evident. Even in the climax, the heroine stands by her word given to her father and gets married to the person of his choice. The other man again says, “I am sacrificing for your happiness”, and she is left to chase her dream. A role reversal from the hero chasing after his dream to now the heroine doing it, again off handedly encouraged by her husband.

Why this ruckus? Remember, love is an uncertain terrain. Nila has to respect her father’s wish. Like the Moon which cannot shine without the Sun, she is nothing without her father. Hence, even though Prabhu‘s earthly love is attracting, she still has to adhere to her existential love for her father, even after his death. Scientifically, even the Moon is drifting away from Earth. Similarly, she promised Prabhu that if she walked away, she would never come back. She decided to keep her word given to two important people in her life. As the third one relieved her, she ran to see if her heart’s wish could be fulfilled. The hero is uncertain about how to really convince himself to be in love or not to be. He decides to be, but can he remain? Matthew Thomas and all actors gave their best, and the production values and GV Prakash‘s music all click. Dhanush tried to go different from the usual exposure of women in item songs with Gen-Z clothing already being more revealing. Golden Sparrow‘s picturization is a classy way to shift away from routine as he shows how dreamy [including Yedi] the world around you is in love, and he even showcased the Kadhal Fail in the opening reel itself. All of this blends excellently into the narrative by the composer. While we try to land on the moon, we first have to learn to orbit around Earth and even survive in the harsh radiation of space. Baby steps can lead to big progress, but I would like to see Dhanush go completely out of the box like his brother Selva Raghavan one day to really showcase his growth. Until then, NEEK is good entertainment we may seek.

Theatrical Trailer: