Nimma Vasthugalige Neeve Javaabdaararu movie review: This anthology about a bunch of thieves is quite the ball

3/5

Nimma Vasthugalige Neeve Javaabdaararu story: Inaayat (Prasanna Shetty), a struggling salesman with an OCD, who is also a skilful bike thief; Rohith (Madhusudhan Govind), a rich boy who steals oddities for cheap thrills, and finds his match, literally, in the spunky, Rathna (Apoorva Bharadwaj); a realtor, Albert (Dileep Raj), running a honey-trap operation as a side hustle, are at the centre of this anthology.

Nimma Vasthugalige Neeve Javaabdaararu review: Armed with three ideas, each of which merited only short-format story-telling, director Keshav Moorthy made a smart move – he stitched them together in anthology format. And even though the central theme of all three was the same – theft – they had no other common thread, so there was no attempt to connect them.

The first tale, for instance, rests squarely on the shoulders of Prasanna Shetty as Inaayat, who goes from bumbling salesman to bike thief in the blink of an eye. Prasanna’s body language - that’s the centre piece here – he is, after all, a man of few words. From scouting for the right kind of bike to make off with, to his reactions to almost being caught red-handed or successful operations - watching him ride away on those motorcycles, with a signature slouched posture, is the high point of this story.

Keshav Moorthy then transports audiences to a potential home invasion in broad daylight; which, as it turns out was the set-up to establish the kleptomaniac ways of the protagonist of the second tale. A young man from an affluential family, who has the means to get anything his heart desires, and yet has a stockpile of random stuff he routinely flicks from stores, people, etc. It’s the thrill of the act that gives him an adrenaline rush and not so much the item itself. He then meets Rathna, who has the exact same impulses, and it’s a match made in heaven, literally. Madhusudhan and Apoorva, who play Rohith and Rathna, are both easy on the eye and have incredible chemistry, so, even when much of what they end up doing together feels a tad far-stretched, one is inclined to overlook this flaw.

The third segment, which is also the longest and gets the entire second half, is the one I enjoyed the most, even though, I had a sense of where the narrative was leading. Dileep Raj and Shilpa Manjunath are the pillars of this story, which has a more serious undertone to it. Dileep, as Albert, runs a high-tech honeytrap operation, targeting unethical people in society, who, he thinks, deserve what’s coming to them. As interesting as the entire modus operandi seems, Albert’s motivation is never explained, which feels like a crucial, but missing piece of the puzzle.

What stands out about Keshav’s stories is that they are absolutely devoid of a judgemental tone. All he does is present three rather delightful tales of a bunch of thieves – with different impetus for their actions – nothing more, nothing less.

Nimma Vasthugalige Neeve Javaabdaararu verdict: Time and money well spent is how the movie outing to watch Nimma Vasthugalige Neeve Javaabdaararu is best described. Good writing and execution and great casting are what makes this film well worth a watch. Just don’t take a moral high ground when you do so.