![]() It’s not perfect, but I was grateful for this bit of wish-fulfilment. These are the emotions I felt during NOTA. The line functions as both gratitude (within the movie) and wish-fulfilment (without). This is also the story of a young actor thrust into the leading role of his first Tamil film. ![]() T owards the end of Anand Shankar’s NOTA, Varun (Vijay Devarakonda) says, “ Pudhiyavan aana ennai aasayodu varavettra Thamizh makkale… ” (The Tamils have so lovingly welcomed a newcomer like me…) This is the story of a youngster thrust into the position of Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu. NOTA, by and large, is enjoyable, racy and relevant to its time.Read the full review on Film Companion, here: ![]() He is there in almost all frames and along with Nasser and Sathyaraj, the young superstar holds the film together. The film belongs to Vijay Devarakonda who has given a riveting performance. However, it lacks powerful dialogues and there are some loose ends in the script which should have been tied up. But the film does not turn preachy at any time. To a large extent, what Devarakonda and director Shankar want to convey is that you need big money to control and run a political party. In a way, it is a sarcastic dig at what has been going on in Dravidian politics in the last few years. In one scene, Nasser tells his MLAs not to bend too low showing servitude otherwise they will forget his face when his statue has to be built. Every major political incident that happened in Tamil Nadu has been weaved into the script – dynastic politics, hero-worship culture, Chennai floods, how news channels controlled by politicians whitewash their leader and create fake news, godmen manipulating political leaders, and resort politics to keep MLAs safe from poaching. By making Vijay Devarakonda lead the film, the director has made it more convincing and realistic. There is no romance or a leading lady in the film which also does not have any humour and mass action scenes. There have been films of the same pattern, but what makes NOTA different is that the director has not added any unwanted commercial ingredients. Once out of the hospital, Vinodhan wants to get his chair back and plans to bring down his son’s ministry. As Varun becomes strong as an able administrator (in handling the Chennai floods), his dad comes out of the jail but is caught in a bomb blast and gets hospitalised. He is helped by a journalist and commentator Mahendran (Sathyaraj, modelled on the late Cho Ramaswamy), who was once giving political advice to his dad before they had a fallout. But soon as the situation spirals out of control fuelled by an ambitious opposition leader and his daughter, Varun is forced to become a “Rowdy CM”. ![]() The idea is clear that Varun will only be a “dummy CM” till daddy gets bail. He makes Varun, who is not even a party member, as the temporary new CM. He runs his party with an iron hand but is convicted in an illegal assets case and has to go to jail. Varun (Vijay Deverakonda) is a London returned happy go-lucky guy and son of chief minister Vinodhan (Nasser), a former superstar-turned-politician. ![]()
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