‘DNA' movie review: A froth of contrivance floats over big, promising ideas

A man lost to the winds of life and a mentally-challenged woman give life a second chance and get married. A young woman, whose sensitivity is mistaken for incapacity, fights a lonely battle when she believes her newborn baby was swapped with someone else's. A man, tussling with existential guilt and the burden of escape, takes a piercing look at the societal pressures that fall upon most married couples in a conservative society. A new father realises that it takes newborns a month for distinct facial features to develop and hence struggles to identify his child. You find many such big, ambitious ideas, all promising to come together in an engaging investigative thriller, in director Nelson Venkatesan's DNA, starring Atharvaa and Nimisha Sajayan.
Unfortunately, these ideas remain disjointed isles of potential. The film wishes you forgive its smaller lapses and take a leap of faith in its larger pursuit. Take, for instance, how we are introduced to the protagonist, Anand (Atharvaa, who gives his all), a heartbroken man who has given up on life and spends his time drinking and wallowing in self-pity. Just when you are wondering if it was really a heartbreak that pushed him to such a low point, we learn that he is burdened by something tragic that has happened to his ex-lover. Though presumably written not to villainise her, you find a convenience in how the idea is communicated, and how it abandoned without the necessary follow-ups.
'DNA' (Tamil)
Director: Nelson Venkatesan
Cast: Atharvaa, Nimisha Sajayan, Balaji Sakthivel, Ramesh Thilak
Runtime: 140 minutes
Storyline: A mysterious case of newborn babies being swapped at a private hospital unravels dark truths
Then we are introduced to Dhivya (Nimisha in a one-note role that doesn't build on the initial promise), a mentally challenged woman who sees no sense in how others perceive her imperfections. Nelson wishes to make a strong case for those who stigmatise mental illnesses or loosely use the offensive term 'loosu' (meaning 'dumb'). But then, is Dhivya suffering from cognitive development issues, or is she suffering from Borderline Personality Disorder, or is she an intellectually disabled woman who also suffers from BPD?
We are told that she is quite sensitive and tends to obsess over the minor details of life. But it's only ironic that the film maps out her 'illness' and doesn't help us understand what goes on in her mind, or if she could fully understand what marriage, living with a man who hardly knows about her condition, or, later, having a child with him, really means. What did she see in Anand that made her agree to the alliance, or what did she understand when Anand saved her from embarrassment at their wedding and declared that this was a chance at a new life given to him? We don't get any answers.
In fact, Dhivya and Anand are strangers with lives so drastically different that you would expect a conversation or two as an entry point into understanding each other; usually in such films, the wedding night, when they are alone for the first time, provides that opportunity. In DNA, strangely, Dhivya makes a joke to Anand, and they get intimate — again, she innocently says she is unaware of what traditionally happens during the nuptial night, but her expression after he makes a move lacks the attendant surprise, so you really never understand Dhivya.
A major problem with DNA is this rush in the narration, which at this juncture seems eager to get to the more sensational investigative thriller aspect of the film. Yet, even in that regard, the film misses dotting its i's and crossing its t's. After a year that passes by in a montage, Dhivya gives birth to a baby boy at a hospital; shortly after she sees the baby, he is taken to the incubator ward for a few minutes. When the baby is brought back, a puzzled Dhivya declares that this isn't her baby but somebody else's. Neither Anand nor her mother believes her, and the chief doctor, upon learning of Dhivya's mental condition, suspects that she's suffering from post-partum psychosis.
You would expect a story about a test of faith between the couple and an investigation that makes you question fact from fiction (given how 'post-partum psychosis' is thrown in), but that isn't the case here. We know what had transpired, and the rest of the film is about the 'how' — because Nelson, in a scene preceding this, decides to reveal a trump card and spoon-feed information. Serving suspense requires giving some information that piques our interest, but you wonder if that could've been achieved without revealing a major key to the case. This hurried narration and convenient plotting continue throughout the investigation that follows. When one takes a step back, everything, from the initial scene that follows a road accident to how police officer Chinnasamy (Balaji Sakthivel) and Anand figure out some major clues, feels awfully convenient.
Nelson Venkatesan's previous film, Farhana, told an intriguing thriller story with its heart in the right place and without getting too didactic about it. DNA, while it carries its noble intentions on its sleeves, seems to be the work of a less confident writer-director, one who starts his film with a soup song in a bar and ends all hope with an item song in a bar that serves no purpose. And you thought such trite ideas were no longer part of the genetic fabric of mainstream Tamil cinema.
DNA is currently running in theatres

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