BOMMAI NAYAGI MOVIE REVIEW CLICK TO RATE THE MOVIE

Bommai Nayagi is a film written and directed by Shan, and produced by Pa Ranjith under the banner Neelam Productions in association with Yaazhi Films. The film has Yogi Babu, Subatra and Srimathi in the lead roles, while Jayachandran, GM Kumar, Arul Doss, Lizzie Antony and others play supporting roles. The music is composed by Sundaramurthy KS, and the cinematography is handled by Athisayaraj.

Velu (Yogi Babu) is a simple man whose entire world revolves around his family and the tea stall he works in. One day while his entire family is having a fun time at the Bommai Nayagi Amman temple festival, his daughter (Bommai Nayagi) goes home to bring her piggy bank and offers the money she's saved to the deity. But a couple of drunkards abuse her on the way back, leaving her unconscious. The rest of the film deals with Velu's fight to bring justice to Bommai Nayagi.

First things first, it is super refreshing to see Yogi Babu in roles where he can showcase his potential as an actor rather than just a comedian. Here too he has the space for his counters and jokes, but the actor inside him takes precedence in most scenes. For instance, there is a scene where he has admitted his daughter to a hospital, and she's getting treatment. He hasn't told his wife (Subatra) yet that their daughter has been sexually assaulted. He moves to a dark, deserted place and expresses his pain in the most subtlest of ways. That is who Yogi Babu the actor is.

The rest of the film is also majorly powered by the cast, most of whom are not trained actors. Subatra is terrific as Bommai Nayagi's mother. However it is the child actor Srimathi who plays the titular role of Bommai Nayagi, who steals the show. Her earnest acting adds on to the innocent feel the film wants to create. Other supporting characters too deliver memorable performances.

Usually films that have a part of it dealing with a courtroom backdrop end with the case judgement being in favour of the victim or the oppressor. However, in Bommai Nayagi, director Shan goes a step further and tells us what happens after justice has been delivered? Or is it justice at all just because a court decides to imprison the perpetrators of a crime. Such an angle has rarely been dealt in Tamil cinema, so kudos to the director.

This also ends up as a drawback for the film as the courtroom scenes seem mildly artificial. Such portions become engaging based on the arguments and evidence the advocates present and how big the odds are stacked against the victims/oppressed. In the film, these scenes don't give you that high, and play out in a rushed way. Had they been better, the film could have been a completely different product.

Whenever films that speak about abuse hit the screen, it usually contains scenes depicting that graphic violence. However, just like the recent film Deepak's Witness, Bommai Nayagi consciously decides to not show what happened, but decides to show the consequences of abuse. It constantly takes the side of the marginalized. This is a welcome move and must be appreciated.

Overall, Bommai Nayagi is a fantastic film that could have been better if its second half was more engaging. The performances of all the actors makes us look past most of its flaws, but there are a few that are glaring. The rest of the film is feel-good, and the father daughter relationship between Velu and Bommai is conveyed well. The music and songs by Sundaramurthy KS and the cinematography by Athisayaraj which is filled with rich colors, aids the vision of the director and lifts the film's quality several notches higher. Definitely a harmless watch for the weekend.