A Peep into Nayanthara’s Life – Review of Nayanthara: Beyond the Fairytale

It is refreshing to see a female actor from the film industry providing a glimpse in to her life for the audience.  Unlike in the Hollywood or elsewhere, it is rare for the Indian actors to provide the details of their life to the audience.  Often what the audience knows about their favourite stars is confined to rumourspassed through yellow tabloids rather than any authentic news.  The recent release of Nayanthara: Beyond the Fairytale on Netflix OTT platform has caught the attention of not only Nayanthara’s fans, but also general audience too.

In that backdrop, the ‘Lady Super Star’ has taken a step forward in giving authentic information about her own life to the audience.  The documentary starts ten days before her wedding day, where all plans for the wedding are yet to be realized with an iota of confusion over wedding location.  From there the narration goes in to Nayanthara’s past when she was born as Diana Mariam Kurian.  Again we only get a glimpse of her parents and brother and overall about her childhood. 

Then the narrative follows with a glimpse of how she landed her first movie chance.  We also get to hear from Nayanthara herself, about ups and downs that she underwent due to failed relationships coupled with body shaming. The two years break that she took from films due to coercion to stop her acting in movies as she was in a toxic relationship. The depressing moments followed by her break up from toxic relationships are an eye-opener for the audience.  Our stars too suffer like common people due to bad choices and relationships.  There is a lesson or two for the audiences too in fighting their emotional problems.

The narration shifts to ‘Naanum Rowdy Dhaan’ (I am also a Rowdy) where she met her future heartthrob and husband Vignesh Shivan, who is also a director to the movie.  Audience gets a glimpse of how they fell in love, what is their relationship like and how together they cope up with challenges, etc.  The documentary film ends with showing Nayanthara’s wedding with Vignesh Shivan and among the wedding guests are Sharukh Khan, Rajini Kanth, Surya, Jyothika, Maniratnam, Suhasini, Boney Kapoor and other stalwarts. 

The documentary film collects memoirs from Nayanthara’s mother, first director, Telugu stars like Nagarjuna and Rana, followed Vijay Sethupati, her co-star in Naanum Rowdy Dhaan movie. Though there are some inspiring moments in the documentary like how she withstood body shaming and how she silenced critics when they objected to her playing the role of Sita in the Telugu film ‘Srirama Rajyam’ directed by Bapu.  The manner in which she withstood pressures during highly testing times is inspiring in nature. 

However, the film had given only a sporadic glimpse of the star’s life, where as much of the focus was on her failed relationships and the events leading to her wedding.  It would be a treat to the film going audience, if more stars come forward with documentary films about their lives.