Nayanthara: Beyond the Fairy Tale’ Review – Did the controversial Documentary do justice?

Nayanthara: Beyond the Fairy Tale’ Review – Did the controversial Documentary do justice?

One of South India’s highest earning actresses Nayanthara’s life in front of the camera seems transparent for the most part of her life’s milestones are an open book for the audience. Just like any other celebrity, Nayanthara was also a frequent subject for the media, who are always eager to cover the actress’ lifestyle, her public appearances and even a glimpse of her private life is spread like wildfire for everyone to know. 

After Nayanthara’s marriage to Vignesh Sivan, Netflix partnered with them to film and make a documentary of their wedding along with a sitdown of the actress, who probably, apart from some rare interviews, opened up about her own struggles and personal life that has never been revealed. The documentary was planned right after their wedding in 2022, but was shelved due to many reasons. Netflix even released the official trailer of the documentary that will mainly cover the actress’ wedding that broke the internet in 2022 but then adjourned, completely staying silent about the announcement. But on November 9th, 2024, another trailer of the documentary released, reigniting the excitement of fans. 

The documentary opens with a planned scene of Nayanthara sitting with her wedding planners who are speaking about the venue, scheduling and what not, but the actress seems to be unfocused and steps out. The montage following this scene reveals fellow actors, actresses, fans and Nayanthara’s colleagues speaking highly of her as a person and their memories with her. 

The documentary then opens up with Nayanthara narrating about her early days, her childhood and the little that is known about her family. Nayanthara’s mother, Omana Kurian also joins while remembering her daughter’s entry into cinema and how unexpected the offer was from a prominent director. This is followed by director Sathyan Anthikkad and Director Faazil, who gave a big breakthrough for her very early in her career. 

The first half of the documentary also shows an unknown side of Nayanthara where she opens up about her father who has been under severe medical care for years and how it was tough for her to cope up with emergencies and constant duress. Even her mother shared personal incidents that are intimate to the family and emoted her pride and sentiments about her daughter. 

Celebrities like Nagarjuna, Radhika Sarathkumar, Upendra, Vijay Sethupathi, Tammannah Bhatia, Tapsee Pannu shared their memories with Nayanthara while also revealing how her journey has been all these years. This also includes her close friends and colleagues Anu Vardhan, Vishnu Vardhan, Nelson Dilipkumar who were candidly reminisced about the actress and the couple. 

Nayanthara also spoke about her past relationships and the controversies that arose with breakups. She spoke about how the media and audience were partial to her and completely ignored the other party, an actor, who was also equally involved in the relationship. She also revealed how she was not mature enough while entering the relationship. Nayanthara’s second most publicised relationship with a popular choreographer almost made her quit acting. The hiatus lasted two years after which Nagarjuna made her comeback on track, a second inning that gave her fame like never before in her career. 

The second half of the documentary is more about her present life with Vignesh Sivan, starting off from their marriage preparations to how they are complimenting each other’s personalities and just focus on their much talked about wedding ceremonies, finishing off with a sweet montage of their sons Uyir and Ulag. 

Fans who were actually looking forward to the documentary, pulled back with the recent controversy surrounding the permission of usage of their stills and scenes from ‘Naanum Rowdy Thaan’ and her open statement against the film’s producer and former co- star Dhanush K. Raja. There is also the question of how the sequences and the way the whole documentary was structured, contradicting how a documentary must be a candid, unplanned narrative that dives deep and reveals something that is never known. The documentary through the first half was transparent but eventually swerved towards dramatic and filmy.