Bangalore Naatkal is a faithful remake of the Malayalam superhit Bangalore Days. It’s a tale of three cousins — Ammu (Sridivya), Aju (Arya), and Kutty (Bobby Simha, with an obvious wig) — who set off to Bengaluru with little knowledge that their lives are going to be rocked.
The tone of the film clear when Aju awkwardly says on the eve of Ammu’s wedding, “What ye rocking city.” Aju talks of Bengaluru like it is the place of every Tamilian’s dreams. “Bangalooooooore,” he whispers with the excitement of a child who’s found ice cream. You wonder whether Bangalore holds the same fascination as that of a place like Goa. Are there people whose eyes go as wide as Aju’s when talking about the Garden City?
With the exception of a few jokes, mainly in Kutty’s track, Bangalore Naatkal is a proper remake. It has the same composer (Gopi Sunder), who has retained the opening hit number, Maangalyam . A few members of the cast from the Malayalam film — Parvathy (RJ Sarah), Sajid Yahiya (a member of a racing group), and Sijoy Varghese (racing coach) — reprise their roles.
When a remake is as faithful, the discussion revolves around the differences between the two versions. In this case, it is the cast. Sridivya is good despite her awkward pronunciation. Her performance is engrossing.
Both Arya and Bobby (Dulquer and Nivin in the original) play their parts reasonably well, but lacked the subtlety and finesse of the original actors.
Bobby’s character (Kutty), though the weakest character among the three protagonists (and hence, perhaps the narrator), brings a breath of fresh air. However, you are not convinced that Kutty is as innocent as made out to be. I missed the childlike glint in Nivin’s eyes every time his character does something he considers blasphemous — like ogling at an airhostess.
Unlike Dulquer, Arya doesn’t seem like he’s as traumatised by his past. Dulquer was a ticking time-bomb. Arya doesn’t bring the same explosiveness into the role. His eyes don’t seem to have had as many sleepless nights. His heart doesn’t seem to be filled with as much desperation for acceptance and love.
However, Bangalore Naatkal has some great casting as well. Rana Daggubati (who plays Ammu’s husband Prasad) and Saranya (Kutty’s mother) are two of them. While Fahadh Faasil exuded alpha male behaviour through his confidence in the original, Rana added muscularity to the character. As for Saranya, she has played the impish mother so many times that she could sleepwalk through these roles. You don’t script such a role, you can just ask Saranya to play it.
The film works despite the minor niggles. It makes you tear-eyed at times, even though it doesn’t make you laugh as much as the original. It’d have taken some seriously dreadful filmmaking to ruin a tale as heart-warming as Bangalore Days . There is much subtlety in the script, especially in the track between Ammu and Prasad, which hooks you. There are scenes which work really well, like the one where Prasad is filling up the refrigerator with mango juice bottles or the one where a fully-grown Labrador is playing in his arms. These moments are so tender that you are willing to ignore the other filmy scenes, like the overly dramatic bike race at the end.
At its heart, Bangalore Naatkal is about change. Everything, like in life, is in a state of constant transformation. A woman embraces modernity, a foreigner embraces tradition, an old man discovers the joy of taking a solitary journey to Goa, an old couple finds redemption, a racer begins to believe in himself, a married man learns to move on from a past relationship… and perhaps best of all, people find love.
Bangalore Naatkal
Director: Bommarillu Bhaskar
Starring: Sridivya, Arya, Bobby Simha, Rana Daggubati, Saranya
Run time: 156 mins
