'Nayanthara: Beyond the Fairytale' review—Netflix documentary is heartfelt, engaging, simplistic
Nayanthara: Beyond the Fairytale probes the "Lady Superstar" Nayanthara's personal and professional life, downfalls, vulnerabilities, career peaks, and her wedding with director Vignesh Shivan. The documentary mostly plays out like a film, with everything prim and proper and guests almost speaking from a script. But, it's the second half (focusing on Shivan-Nayanthara's love story), where it truly comes on its own.
Know Nayanthara's life through 'Beyond the Fairytale'
Directed by Amith Krishnan and streaming on Netflix, the documentary focuses on all the monumental parts of Nayanthara's life. A good amount of runtime is dedicated to her beginnings, her dream entry into showbiz, her association with South superstars Nagarjuna, Mohanlal, and Rajinikanth, and her failed relationships. The documentary also features exclusive footage from her stunning wedding that took place in June 2022.
Nayanthara's personal life comes to the fore
Nayanthara's several colleagues (Nagarjuna, Rana Daggubati, Tamannaah Bhatia, Radikaa Sarathkumar, among others), offer anecdotes and recall incidents that help us understand who Nayanthara really is. Not the actor, but the person. They describe the work ethic and professionalism that defines her and have made her a rare female Indian superstar. Out of all the guests, Daggubati has the wisest, most engaging words to offer.
Nayanthara's mother brings a sense of truth to 'Beyond...'
The documentary is less than two hours long and fast-paced (sometimes needlessly so) and covers several incidents and experiences one after the other. Nayanthara's mother's sequences are the most honest and vulnerable and while listening to her, you realize how her strength passed on to the actor and made her the person she is today. A sense of honesty effortlessly shines through here.
The documentary captures her entire journey
It's always lonely at the top, and who knows it better than a female actor who carved her own space in a notoriously male-dominated industry? Her colleagues and friends call her "thug" and "warrior," and film critic Baradwaj Rangan tells us, "She projects power on-screen." Nayanthara's journey is encapsulated in various clips that demonstrate her transition from her first to her most recent projects.
The parts showcasing Shivan-Nayanthara's love story are heartfelt, emotional
The film's best part arrives toward the second half when we are introduced to Shivan. The couple's anecdotes of falling in love carry the sweet, innocent aroma of first love, and Shivan enlivens the documentary with his screen presence, honesty, and sense of humor. It's stripped of any artificiality and is defined by a sense of genuineness that is the cornerstone of documentaries.
What could have been better?
However, BTF is now without its flaws. Most of the time, it seems like guests are parroting lines from a script, and in these sequences, the documentary reeks of pretence. If we wanted scripted lines, we would watch a film, not a documentary. It's also burdened by a needlessly saccharine quality, and after a point, the dollops of praise for Nayanthara become repetitive.
It doesn't do justice to some important topics
The documentary also has an extremely annoying pattern—it mentions several important topics and ideas, but then orphans them completely. For instance, Nayanthara speaks about quitting the industry due to an ex-partner's pressure. Alas, it's not explained well, and the viewer feels cheated. Similarly, Nayanthara's rise to stardom happened through her female-centric films, but they, too, are only mentioned in passing.
Makes for a satisfactory (if not excellent) watch; 3/5 stars
The documentary will be a treat if you have been following Nayanthara's journey closely. However, if there had been more authenticity and a lack of (an evident) script, the emotions would have hit us harder. Overall, as the title says, it's a fairytale, so it follows familiar beats: a promising, special woman, conflict, a prince charming, and a happily ever after. 3/5 stars.
