The Nayanthara-Dhanush feud has got an unreasonable abundance of attention for Beyond The Fairy Tale the Netflix documentary on her life and career, being released on her birthday on November 8.
Ironically, Beyond The Fairy Tale is nothing more than a saccharine-sweet fairy tale with Cinderella never getting off the magical coach.
The Netflix documentary turns out to be drearily laudatory. It is as if the anointed subject is a flawless human being, almost a demi-goddess with one after another of her colleagues and directors eulogizing the ‘Lady Superstar’ beyond all limits , until we seriously wonder if Nayanthara is a living entity or God’s gift to mankind.
If we are to believe this unabashed hagiography, Nayanthara is a perfect daughter, perfect wife, perfect co-star, perfect director’s actor… Perfection can be awfully boring. Nayanthara’s early struggles are spoken in tones of outrage and disbelief: how dare destiny deal with her unkindly?!
One of her earliest director talks about how Nayanthara called him and poured her heart out for hours. I am sure that conversation must have been much more sincere and moving than the one she has with the camera in this rush of gush.
That said , Nayanthara Beyond The Fairy Tale is not an unattractive fairytale. The actress’ fans are bound to come away largely pleased watching their favourite (EVERYONE’s favourite!) talking into the camera about her life, family…Of course all duly sanitized.
Watching the overwhelming outpouring of encomium , I was reminded of what Amitabh Bachchan once told me about why he would never write his memoirs: “Because I would either have to lie or just flatter myself throughout. I am not inclined to do either.”
Nayanthara seems happy with 90 minutes of uninterrupted self-promotion.
