Navarasa – Bhibatsa review

Ever since Netflix announced about this maniratnam production, the expectation around the 9 short films, each based on a human emotion has been sky high. With most of the top names of movie-wood already being signed along with top tech crew, the hype was justified a bit as well. Mani himself had written one of those stories and rest are directed by notable names of tamil cinema. Per me the best of the lot would be Payasam (bhibatsa – disgust) , Project Agni (Adbhuta - incredible) and to some extent can include Raudhram as well. Rest of the 6 are anywhere between passable to outright crap. 

Ironically the one related to disgust was that of a sheer delight. It is based on a story by T.Janakiraman (Thi.Ja) a very famous tamil novelist. The reason why I picked this one, directed by Vasanth, as the best of the lot, owing simply to the thought process behind the story selection. Of all the 9, this is the best fit to the emotion being depicted and considering that its based on a novel, kudos to the director. And the novelist deserves a very special mention as well. For those who are having tamil books as their staple reading diet Thi.Ja would’ve been a very familiar name. After seeing this story on screen, I’ve become a huge fan of his writing and immediately read the book version of the story. The director again deserves a pat in the back for sticking with the script as much as possible with one glorious addition that makes the story even shine better. As per the story, the lead character is so full of jealous that his own daughter expresses her disgust on his actions. In the book, the character has a name with which he is introduced to the readers. But in the screen version, the name is never revealed, cleverly depicting how small the character is made to feel by others, who keep glorifying his nephew’s laurels and always addressing him as his uncle rather than by his own name. The very first scene where this happens, sets the tone for the story and the actor, “Delhi” Ganesh”, who played this role, is picture perfect for this character. I loved the way he mutters “hmm”, “yes”, “oh” even when there is no dialogue. Amazing effort during dubbing and excellent timing sense. It makes him old, vulnerable, sad, disgusting (with his last act) and above all very human. As a father and as a loving husband he shines over his fallacies. As a helpless old man, whose ego can’t afford the lifestyle offered by his nephew yet at the same time cannot cherish it is depicted crystal clear. The story has a wedding ceremony happening at this core and there are so many other characters who move around, but the anchor always remains this old man, who is unable to digest the good things which happen for his nephew and not for him, with his own daughter been a widow after just 3 months of marriage, having lost his wife and his own son being gracefully employed by his nephew much to his chagrin. The story ends with the old man, kicking the payasam freshly prepared for the wedding, blaming the chef for having left it open only for a rodent to have jumped inside the vessel. His daughter sees through this act of him and looks at him with disgust.

The story is so simple and yet so amazing and realistic that, it touches a raw nerve. It doesn’t have any moral in the end and is not preachy. In fact the lead character is downright negative all throughout the story with no evidence of him changing even at the end. The inevitability of his action of kicking the vessel, even though it hardly results in any evil, yet the pleasure he gains by ensuring some loss for his nephew in whatever little form possible, the pettiness of it all, encapsulated within a couple of pages, shines with sheer brilliance. And it requires a seasoned actor of Ganesh’s calibre to ensure this character doesn’t become a caricature or an evil villain. It has to evoke a bit of sympathy cum hatred and above everything disgust, which he manages perfectly. A perfect adaptation of page to screen representation of a story.