Nayyi Navelli: Yami Gautam’s dream bahu is hiding something sinister

Yami Gautam is walking into a Meerut household as the perfect new bahu (bride), but there’s clearly more to her character Mohini than meets the eye. The trailer of Nayyi Navelli is out, and what starts as a familiar family drama soon takes a dark, fantastical turn.
Mohini arrives in the Awasthi family as a picture-perfect bride. She wins everyone over almost instantly, but her presence also raises a few eyebrows. Before long, the household’s everyday wedding chaos gives way to whispers of witches, demons and something called ‘Raavan Raj’.
The trailer marks a striking change of mood for Gautam, who appears to be playing a daayan at the heart of the mystery. There’s plenty of humour in the mix too, as the film moves between family squabbles and supernatural mayhem.
One of the trailer’s biggest clues comes through Gautam’s voiceover. “In the Treta Yuga, a demon gave everything to gain his power – you must have heard the name,” she says. That line sets up the film’s mysterious Raavan Raj, where Indian folklore and supernatural forces appear to collide with the everyday lives of the Awasthi family. The film’s makers aren’t giving away too much, though. The trailer instead keeps dropping little hints about Mohini, leaving the question of whether she’s really the threat everyone suspects hanging in the air. And then there’s the family itself. Between wedding rituals, nosy relatives and suspicions about the new bahu, the Awasthi household seems to have enough drama even before the supernatural trouble begins.
The trailer builds on the tone established by the teaser, which was released earlier this month. The teaser introduced an otherwise ordinary family and quickly threw a supernatural accusation into the mix. A brother-in-law openly called his sister-in-law a witch, only for Gautam’s character to respond with a line that summed up the film’s dark sense of humour: “Just a witch? I eat two witches, three demons and four ghosts for breakfast.”
The trailer now expands that world, moving beyond the family’s suspicions and hinting at a much bigger fantasy story.
“Nayyi Navelli ka ho raha hai cinemas mein Griha Pravesh, 16 October, near you!” the makers announced, setting the film up as a Dussehra release.