Neerparavai

Plot

The film is introduced when an old ladys (Nandita Das) son and daughter in law comes to stay on her house where she is solitary. Every often her son and her daughter in law notice that she goes to the beach prays in the garden every night. When they ask her why she is going to the beach she says that she is waiting for her husband to come. The son gets angry and says that you have been waiting for 25 years, he is not going to come. Whilst the mum goes to the beach the couple dig where she is praying and find a skeleton. They report to the police and the case is handled by Inspector Agnes (Varsha Ashwathi) who begins interrogating the old lady. The old lady tells her past.

Arulappasamy (Vishnu) is a young man who is an alcoholic and wastrel who is a constant embarrassment to his hardworking parents. Esther (Sunaina) is an orphan girl who is adopted by a nun, Benita (Anupama Kumar) and she stays in the church. Arulappan slowly gets attracted to Esther and his love for her, changes him. He gives up drinking and wants to work so that he can marry Esther. But the local fishermen do not allow him to go into the sea. The young man due to his determination buys a boat, marries his love and life is all rosy, till fate intervenes.

The married couple have a son and one day Arulappasamy goes to fish but after several days he does not return. Esther is really worried about him. They find his body in a boat shot and bring him home. Esther says to keep him in the house and it was all her fault because she is the one who sent him to work. The police release the old lady but ask a question at the end " Why do you wait for your husband to come if you know he is dead?" She replies, "Only his body returned to shore. His soul is still in sea"

Cast

Casting

Seenu Ramasamy has roped in noted writer Jeyamohan, who has written the dialogues for films like Naan Kadavul and Angadi Theru, to pen the dialogues for his film. The lead male role was initially supposed to be enacted by Vimal. Later it was officially announced that Vishnu will be the protagonist of the movie as Vimal who was earlier roped in for the project was unable to allot dates. It will be produced by Udhayanidhi Stalin under the Red Giant Movies banner. Bindu Madhavi was signed up to portray the lead female character in the film in January 2012. However the FEFSI strike of 2012 delayed the film and Bindu had to opt out of the film owing to date clashes and was subsequently replaced by Sunaina. Award-winning actress Nandita Das, who has previously been seen in critically acclaimed Tamil films including Azhagi and Kannathil Muthamittal, was also announced to be joining the team in April 2012. Furthermore actress Saranya Ponvannan who previously worked with Seenu in Thenmerku Paruvakaatru which fetched her the National Film Award for Best Actress was signed for a supporting role. Samuthirakani and Anupama Kumar are also doing important roles in this movie.

Filming

As the film will narrate the story of a village fisherman, major portions of the movie would be shot in the waters of Manapad and Kulasekharapatnam. The films shoot was delayed after Vishnu injured his arm while playing in the Celebrity Cricket League and the shoot will continue on April 8. Director Seenu Ramasamy has completed the shoot of the talking part of the film and the crew will be shooting fight sequences and song sequences for 25 days, starting from 15 June. Producer Udayanidhi Stalin has sold the Satellite rights of the movie to Sun TV for a whopping price.

Soundtrack

N. R. Raghunanthan composed the soundtrack, teaming up with Seenu Ramasamy for the second time. The soundtrack album consist of 7 tracks. The lyrics were written by Vairamuthu. The audio was launched in a grand, emotional and classy manner at the Satyam cinemas on 10 October 2012. Few lines in "Para Para" created controversy among Christians which led them protest against the song thus the lyrics was removed.

Behindwoods wrote:"Neerparavai is N.R.R’s best album so far that deserves a few more listens".

Critical reception

Neerparavai opened to very positive reviews from critics. Bravos, a review aggregator for Indian movies assigned the movie a very good score of 63 (Out of 100). Sify gave 4 stars with "Good" Verdict and said the movie as "a moving drama that will undoubtedly leave you with a lump in your throat. And films like this are hard to find." Malathi Rangarajan from The Hindu calling the movie as "Soaring high" and says " if meaningful cinema matters to you, go for it." by adding "as a producer, Udayanidhi Stalin can be proud of having backed a purposeful film, and as a creator, Seenu Ramasamy makes the water bird preen, and soar with confidence." Behindwoods rated as 3/5 and said "a simple love story narrated neatly. All the departments of Neer Paravai have worked in tandem resulting in a satisfying experience for the viewer" Pavithra Srinivasan from Rediff gave 3 out of 5 with "Go Watch" tag and said "[it] is a beautiful record of the lives of a community, their hopes and dreams, and the harsh reality of their lives" IBNLive praised the movie by saying "this Tamil film deserves praise for conviction" Haricharan Pudipeddi from Nowrunning.com rates the movie 3/5 by saying "Neerparavai is a fitting and beautiful saga of sea-folks, whose lives most often get sabotaged by reality."

Awards