Netflix India on Tuesday released the trailer of Navarasa, the nine-part Tamil anthology film by veteran filmmakers Mani Ratnam and Jayendra Panchapakesan.
The trailer shows a montage of several stories and incidents, including actor Suriya making what appears to be a love confession, actress Anjali with a pregnant belly at a police station asking officers to find a missing person, Atharva in a military outfit, Arvind Swamy trying to kill himself, ‘Delhi’ Ganesh seeking vengeance, and many more.
We also catch glimpses of Parvathy Thiruvothu, Revathi, Prakash Raj, Vijay Sethupathi, Ashok Selvan, Prasanna, Bobby Simha, Siddharth, Yogi Babu, Ramya Nambeesan, and others in the trailer.
Watch the trailer here:
Navarasa, which is based on nine rasas (human emotions) — anger, compassion, courage, disgust, fear, laughter, love, peace, and wonder — is a one-of-its-kind project bringing together more than 40 actors and at least nine directors.
The Netflix anthology is special for more than one reason. Navarasa is a pro-bono project that aims to help all the film industry workers affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. Reports say the profits earned through this film will be used to help the economically weaker workers from the industry.
What’s more, all the artistes have worked on the film for free!
Explaining how he came up with the idea for this project, Mani Ratnam told media sources in an interview, “In the pandemic, we (Mani and Jayendra Panchapakesan) talked on the phone, and decided we should do something for the film industry because it has been badly affected. There has not been any work for a very long time, and most of them are daily wage earners. We needed to do something substantial, and not just a token thing, which would make a real difference. It needed not just us but the entire industry to come together, so we just had to ask all these actors and directors, they were ready for it. That is something we all are proud of (sic).”
Co-founded by Mani Ratnam and Jayendra Panchapakesan, Navarasa has been produced by Justickets and will premiere exclusively on August 6 on Netflix. Interestingly, this anthology also marks actor Arvind Swamy’s directorial debut. Other directors working on this anthology are Gautham Vasudev Menon, Karthik Subbaraj, Karthick Naren, Bejoy Nambiar, Priyadarshan, Rathindran Prasad, Vasanth S Sai, and Sarjun KM. Music directors AR Rahman, D Imman, Ghibran, Arul Dev, Karthik, Ron Ethan Yohann, Govind Vasantha, and Justin Prabhakaran have composed the music for different segments of the anthology.
Talking about this mega project, Mani Ratnam and Jayendra Panchapakesan said, “We are extremely happy and proud of our colleagues in the industry, directors, actors and technicians, who have created engaging, exciting stories from these nine emotions or the classical rasas. We are sure viewers across the globe will enjoy and celebrate this confluence of rasas (sic).”
Check out the detailed breakdown of the cast for each segment of the anthology here:
Story 1: Edhiri: Karuṇā (compassion)
Cast - Vijay Sethupathy, Prakash Raj, Revathy
Director - Bejoy Nambiar
Story 2: Summer of 92: Hāsya (Laughter)
Cast - Yogi Babu, Ramya Nambeesan, Nedumudi Venu
Director - Priyadarshan
Story 3: Project Agni: Adbhutā (Wonder)
Cast - Arvind Swami, Prasanna, Poorna
Director - Karthick Naren
Story 4: Payasam: Bheebhalsa (Disgust)
Cast - Delhi Ganesh, Rohini, Aditi Balan, Karthick Krishna
Director - Vasanth S Sai
Story 5: Peace: Shanthih (Peace)
Cast - Simha, Gautham Menon, Master Tarun
Director - Karthik Subbaraj
Story 6: Roudhram: Raudra (Anger)
Cast - Riythvika, Sreeram, Abhinayasree, Ramesh Thilak, Geetha Kailasam
Director - Arvind Swami
Story 7: Inmai: Bhaya (Fear)
Cast - Siddharth, Parvathy Thiruvothu
Director - Rathindran R Prasad
Story 8: Thunintha Pin: Veera (Courage)
Cast - Atharvaa, Anjali, Kishore
Director - Sarjun
Story 9: Guitar Kambi Mele Nindru: Shringara (Love)
Cast - Suriya, Prayaga Rose Martin
Director - Gautham Vasudev Menon