Ninnila Ninnila / Theeni Review - A pleasant serving of food and love!

PUBLISHED DATE : 28/Feb/2021

Ninnila Ninnila / Theeni Review - A pleasant serving of food and love!

Ninnila Ninnila - A pleasant serving of food and love!

Bharath Vijayakumar


Just like the numerous dishes that appear on screen during its runtime, how much you enjoy a film like Ninnila Ninnila depends on the kind of appetite and taste that you have at the point of watching it. Debutant Ani I.V.Sasi sets out to tell a simple tale and creates an endearing little universe that has a calming influence on you for two hours. Unhurried in pace and devoid of commercial trappings, this is an assured debut from the filmmaker.

 

Set in a restaurant in London, the film revolves around four characters. Each of them is essentially yearning for the same thing - getting back the love that they had lost. Sasi makes each of them amusing or slightly eccentric to compensate for the lack of drama. There is something else that unites them as well. Their love for food.

 

Sasi possibly uses food as the metaphor for love. Nassar stops cooking after losing his love, Dev (Ashok Selvan) clings on to cooking to keep his love close to himself and Tara (Ritu Varma) turns to cooking to get back her love. Dev prepares the best of dishes without measuring the ingredients and completely relying on his instincts .This is probably the filmmaker saying that you cannot approach love with a set of prerequisites. It is entirely about how you feel and you need to go with the flow.

 

***Mild spoilers ahead*** ////

Ninnila Ninnila shares a similarity with Anjali Menon's Kode (Malayalam) which was an adaptation of the Marathi film Happy Journey. I also kind of think that the Nithya Menen character itself is a metaphor for lost love and is an illusion (at least partially). Dev suffers a heartbreak and isn't able to overcome the loss. He becomes obese, loses his sleep and does not shave. As long as the Nithya Menen character clings on to him (or the other way around), he isn't able to come out of this self imposed cage. He finally sleeps when she leaves. What's more, her character itself is named Maya (illusion)! Maya is possibly the physical image given to love that was lost and people clinging on to it desperately without being able to move on. Dev is able to let go of Maya only after he gets back love in the form of Tara. This is probably the crux of Ninnila Ninnila. Self harm isn't going to cure your heartbreak nor you clinging on to it. But another love can help you in coping with lost love.


The lead cast is terrific and the best part is that the actors keep it simple. The eccentric streaks are never oversold. Rajesh Murugesan and Divakar Mani are two pillars of Ninnila Ninnila. The music and cinematography are what transport you into the meditative sort of space that the film is. They sort of come together to create a certain soul for the film. You just want to keep looking at some of the frames. The film is definitely leisurely paced but that is what it sets out to do.


Bottomline:


 

Ninnila Ninnila is a very pleasant film. That is the best way to put it. As said earlier, whether you buy into it would also depend on your frame of mind. But this is definitely a welcome marriage between food and love, two essentials of life!


Rating: 3/5

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