Nayyi Navelli Review: Yami Gautam's Muddled Mythology

Nayyi Navelli, Yami Gautam's horror comedy, opened on Oct. 16 to harsh reviews. The Hindu calls it high on decibels and low on charms, and News18 gives it 1 out of 5. Both say the film loses its identity when it turns from small-town comedy into a mythological spectacle.

The film

Balaji Mohan directs, with a screenplay by Divy Nidhi Sharma. Gautam plays Mohini, a new bride in the Awasthi family whose brother-in-law Bantu, played by Anurag Thakur, suspects she is a daayan, a witch. The cast also includes Addinath Kothare as her husband Raja, Sunita Rajwar, Mita Vashisht and Sushmita Mukherjee. The Hindu lists a runtime of 138 minutes, and News18 lists 2 hours 18 minutes, which is the same length. News18 names Aanand L Rai and Himanshu Sharma as producers.

What critics said

The Hindu's Shreyas Pande writes that the film begins as a typical small-town comedy, then shows patchy horror elements before becoming a devotional, mythological extravaganza that tries to cash in on recent trends. He says it never comes of age in any genre it touches and acts like an overdramatic TV soap when its identity drifts.

Pande sees a feminist tale hidden underneath that is overshadowed once the second half takes the mythological route. He likes the family banter and singles out Thakur's lively turn as Bantu as the best of the performances. He says G.V. Prakash Kumar's score strives to inject excitement, but its relentless volume leaves a deafening aftertaste.

News18's Shachi Chaturvedi is harsher. She writes that the film delivers no suspense, scares or humour, calls the jokes WhatsApp forwards, and says it relies heavily on narration. She notes that it draws on the Ramayana and the Mahabharata, but says that does not turn familiar themes into an engaging story. In her screening, she writes, people were talking and scrolling through reels. She asks why Gautam, who she says delivered solid work in Haq and Uri, chose it.

Mid-day's weekly round-up of entertainment news calls it a lacklustre horror comedy with a weak script, uninspired storytelling and poor execution.

Why it matters

The reviews we found do not blame Gautam. News18 says a capable performer can do only so much when the writing fails her, and The Hindu says she is earnest but turns into a spectacle without resolve.

What we could not confirm

We have not seen the film and found no box office figures. The three reviews we found are all negative, so we cannot say how audiences have responded. We read The Hindu and News18 in full and mid-day only as a summary.

Sources

*Cover photo: Bollywood Hungama, Wikimedia Commons, *[*https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Yami_Gautam_Dhar_during_the_screening_of_A_Thursday_enhanced.jpg*](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Yami_Gautam_Dhar_during_the_screening_of_A_Thursday_enhanced.jpg)* (CC BY 3.0).*