As Yamuna, a journalist, Nayanthara charms us with her usual confidence, but without much help from the writing, her performance comes off as bland. It is in her other role, where she plays Bhavani, a timid woman who is mocked to be the bearer of bad luck, that Nayanthara shines. In general, Nayanthara is an actress who conveys a lot just through her body language and confidence. But in Bhavani, she brings a form of hesitance in the way she walks, talks and even cries. When Nayanthara cries as Bhavani, there is an explicit expression of vulnerability that the actor hardly shows in other films. Even when she is at her happiest, Nayanthara limits Bhavani’s dances only to a few joyful head bobbles. We might have seen Bhavani only for a limited time in the flashback, but she gave us a Nayanthara that we rarely see on screen.
9. Imaikkaa Nodigal (2018)
How often have we seen a female vigilante cop in Tamil cinema? The film celebrates Nayanthara, the star without interrupting the CBI officer Anjali that she plays. The investigative thriller offered Nayanthara what few films managed to do — the space to explore a range of emotions. If she is the self-assured, intrepid CBI officer in the first half, her turn as the cold-hearted serial killer, even if only for a few minutes, adds to her memorable performance. The inner transformation of her character from a lovely, happy wife to a serial killer and then an experienced officer is depicted through Nayanthara’s varying performances like when her saccharine talks take a back seat, and instead, she uses her restraint to lend the serial killer scenes an eerily cold vibe. Even if the film begins to falter a bit in the second half, Nayanthara holds it together.