One-Line Review: Jeethu Joseph, Mohanlal combo strikes a bulls-eye yet again with Neru!
Neru YouTube Trailer
Cast: Mohanlal, Anashwara Rajan, Siddique, Jagadeesh, etc.
Release Date: December 21, 2023
Director: Jeethu Joseph
Introduction
An unusual case of crime makes the court proceedings hard to crack the truth. Advocate Vijayamohan steps in to take up the challenge of exposing the criminal.
“Mohanlal is back to form with an understated performance, while Jeethu Joseph has found his mojo in this mostly riveting legal drama.”
~ The Hindu
Our rating for Neru is 9/10.
Summary
A blind girl, Sara, is raped in broad daylight, and the police manage to capture a suspect. However, the disability of the victim makes the task of proving the crime in court a daunting one. The only clue from Sara’s side is that Sara is a brilliant sculptor, and she made a sculpture of the attacker. But Sara’s family stumbles in proving the crime in court while the opposition hires a clever, famous, and cunning lawyer to safeguard the rapist.
Sara’s family approaches attorney Vijayamohan, who is no longer in practice, to take the case. A reluctant and under-confident Vijayamohan takes up the case after seeing Sara’s misery. He has to find ways to crack the crime and expose enough proof in court for the rapist to be punished promptly, thereby ensuring justice for the family.
Review
Neru is a breath of fresh air for Mohanlal and his fans. It is been a long time since the legendary actor gave a good and strong content-oriented movie. Jeethu-Mohanlal combo, who once delivered a global hit called ‘Drishyam’, and later a decent thriller ‘Alone’, is back with another blockbuster now.
What makes Neru a winner at the box office is its narration. It is a very unusual script where the audience gets to know who the culprit is in the first 10 minutes. What then happens in the movie is prolonged court proceedings to expose the truth of the case. Making such a narration interesting is not an easy task. Jeethu’s making with Santhi’s screenplay and research made it an intriguing watch.
To show court proceedings realistically after intense research was something new for the audience. Making use of Santhi Mayadevi’s expertise, who is a real advocate, was a brilliant move by Jeethu. Whenever some complicated arguments happened between the advocates, a Malayalam subtitle was added to make sure people understood what was being said. The best thing about Neru was that you didn’t get to see punch dialogues or unnecessary build-ups. Jeethu made it very clear what he was saying. Mohanlal plays an underconfident advocate, and the actor did a brilliant job with his performance. While we were prepared to witness a strong performance by Mohanlal, what came as a surprise was Anashwara, who surprised us with an extraordinary performance as a blind victim of rape.
From music to writing to screenplay, everything was on point in Neru that made the movie work big time among the audience. It takes guts to make a movie of this sort and also to make it work among the mass audience.
Conclusion
Neru is a must-watch, well-made, gripping courtroom drama where Mohanlal shines as an actor.
