Nail Polish review: Promising psychological thriller

Rating: 3.5/5

Nail Polish on ZEE5 will keep you on the edge of your seats, but the plot twists might seem a tad unnecessary. The thriller aces because of its stellar cast.

Story

Nail Polish is a courtroom drama that revolves around Veer Singh (Manav Kaul), a children’s sports coach and former Special Forces Officer. He gets accused of molesting and killing two migrant children when evidences are found at one of his farmhouses.

This makes way for Advocate Sid Jaisingh (Arjun Rampal), who defends Singh, and Advocate Amit Kumar (Anand Tiwary) from prosecution who defends the children’s family.

As the story forwards, Veer Singh gets diagnosed with Dissociative Identity Disorder, and starts recognizing himself as another woman named Charu Raina.

Nail Polish is constituted of many psychological sub-plots that replace the initial suspense-thriller genre halfway through the film.

Performances

Even though Arjun Rampal is one of the key protagonists in the film, characters played by Manav Kaul, Anand Tiwari and Rajit Kapur shine brighter.

As Veer Singh, Kaul is effective and composed. In essence, he plays two characters with quite similar personalities. Whether his character fakes it or not, takes a backseat because Kaul effectively essays both personalities.

As Charu Raina, that side of him is supposed to be feminine and in sync with the actual person who is later revealed. In the process, not for once does his portrayal seem offensive or caricaturist.

Anand Tiwari as Amit Kumar plays a middle class lawyer who just wants to see justice served and his family happy. His acting makes up for an engaging watch. He is given several one-take monologues, none of which miss the mark.

Actor Madhoo makes her OTT debut with Nail Polish, but her character’s need isn’t sufficiently justified. She plays Judge Bhushan’s wife Shobha.

Positives

Nail Polish is blessed with a talented ensemble. But that often leaves no mark if the screenplay doesn’t assist. Thankfully, the film is well-researched, poignantly written and it shows.

The camerawork is brilliant too. On many occasions, Rampal’s character, Sid Jaisingh, is shown facing the people while fighting in court, instead of the judge. This was used as symbolism to signify his character’s sheer negligence of order and how he only used it for his own advantage to twist evidence.

The cinematography played catalyst to several such symbolistic representations. Amit Kumar and Sid’s stark personality differences was often shown through body language and life choices, without actual use of lengthy dialogues.

At first, the film seems to be following the trajectory encompassed on the lines of ‘Primal Fear’, but that doesn’t compromise with the screenplay’s authenticity.

Negatives

Even though this is a psychological drama, it often seems to be using psychology as an escape route to justify frequent digressing. The film leads with migrant lives, class divide, impersonation but with no justification, it soon deviates to almost opposite plot lines.

There are dedicated sequences from Judge Bhushan’s personal life, that adds nothing to the story or his approach to the case.

Worth It?

Nail Polish unravels an open-and-shut case, as a layered onion that doesn’t stop unveiling itself. It is an honest effort at being engaging and at the same time, doesn’t compromise with responsible representation.

It definitely deserves to be watched.


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