Naganand: A bit of a slog, honestly

Is it worth your time?

Honestly? Probably not, unless you’re really into the history of older regional cinema. If you enjoy movies that move at the speed of a tectonic plate, you'll be fine. If you prefer, you know, anything actually happening, you’ll probably hate it. It feels like a project that was made for a very specific crowd in a very different time.

Watching this felt a bit like being trapped at a family gathering where someone is telling a very long, very serious story. There’s a certain charm to the earnestness, I guess. But man, the pacing is just brutal. 🐢

The Tara factor

Tara is doing a lot of heavy lifting here. You can see the effort in her eyes, even when the script gives her absolutely nothing to work with. She’s trying to ground these larger-than-life moments, but the movie keeps drifting away into these weird, static shots that go on for way too long. One scene where she just stares at a door? It felt like it lasted three business days.

It reminded me a bit of the stuffy pacing in Tale of the Vienna Woods, where the atmosphere is supposedly everything. But here, the atmosphere is just... beige. It’s like they forgot that film is supposed to move.

Odd little things

• The background music kicks in at the most awkward moments. Like, a character is just walking to a chair, and suddenly the violins are screaming like the world is ending.
• I noticed a loose prop in the corner of the frame that nobody bothered to move for the entire scene. It was way more interesting than the dialogue.
• There’s a specific shadow that keeps wobbling on the wall. It’s super distracting.

It’s not quite as unhinged as Aces Wild, but it has that same feeling of being slightly off-kilter. Like the director had a vision that the budget couldn't quite catch up to. Sometimes the camera feels like it's hiding something, or maybe it’s just bored.

Anyway, I didn't hate it, but I don't think I'll be revisiting it. It’s one of those films that exists, and that’s about all you can say for it. It's perfectly fine to just let this one sit on the shelf. 🤷‍♂️