Nelson Venkatesan’s ‘DNA’ (Atharvaa, Nimisha Sajayan) takes a super premise and delivers a generic thriller
- Trinity Auditorium
- Jun 20
- 1 min read
It’s a great idea to examine what a child means to its parents, and to shape this dramatic idea into an investigative thriller. But the result doesn’t add up. The rest of this review may contain spoilers.
Nelson Venkatesan’s new film, DNA, is a sort of extension of his wonderful debut feature, Oru Naal Koothu. There, he explored the societal pressures and problems of getting married. Here, he explores the societal pressures and problems of having a child. In an early scene at a hospital, a man is told that his wife has delivered a stillborn baby. They have waited years for this, and like many couples, adoption is not something they considered. They want something that has their own… “DNA”. The basic premise is laid out right here, when we see how this man’s problem is solved. The story then shifts to Anand (Atharvaa) and Divya (Nimisha Sajayan). In the eyes of society, both are “damaged goods”. Anand is a drug addict, which makes his father keep shouting at him, and Divya has a borderline personality disorder that makes her mother keep beating her. They get married, and the narrative kicks off when they have a child and Divya thinks something is not quite right.
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