Nayakan

Movie - Nayakan (Malayalam)
Director - Lijo Jose Pellissery
Cast - Indrajith, Thilakan, Siddique, Dhanya Mary Varghese, Lalu Alex,Jagathy Sreekumar, Kalasala Babu, Vijayaraghavan, Sreejith Ravi
Producer - Anoop Johnson
Story, Screenplay, Dialogues - Rafeeq PS
Cinematography - Manoj Paramahamsa
Music - Prashant Pillai
Editor - Manoj
Art Direction - Salu K George
Release Date - 19th March 2010

This is a film that suddenly came out of nowhere and created a lot of buzz through its slick and stylish promos and posters. The movie, which was supposed to catapult Indrajith into the hero league, was in the making for quite a long time and has finally released today. Directed by Lijo, the son of the late actor Jose Pellissery, the movie is certainly one of the most stylishly made films in Malayalam.

 The movie tells the story of Varadhanunni/Varadhan who lives a double life. One as a Kathakali trainer/performer and the other as a henchman for Vincent Karanavar (Thilakan), to reck vengeance against the person who killed his father (Kalasala Babu), Shankardas (Siddique), who is a magician as well as political bigwig. The film traces the different attempts that Vincent Karanavar, Varadhan and team make to reach Shankardas and kill him because he is their common enemy. Lalu Alex plays the Police Commissioner who investigates this case.

The movie is told in an interesting fashion by going back and forth from past to present and vice versa. The making follows the pattern of Amal Neerad films with a lot of slo-mo shots, never seen before shots of Kochi and slow narrative style with ample scope to display the director's visual style. But the story is an often-repeated story with the hero trying to get revenge for his father's murder against a big villain. The kathakali angle looks like it was added just to get those vibrant colours and a new visual pattern for the film. The villain's character is clearly inspired from the Hollywood movie The Prestige and the sudden change of events in the second half is not really explained, even though the director takes a lot of time in explaining many other scenes which can be clearly understood by the audience even without any explanation. The screenplay deviates from being good to being mediocre at many instances. Same can be said about the dialogues which are smart at times, but extremely silly most of the times.

Coming to the performances, Indrajith is the best of the lot, playing the hero Varadhanunni with the required restraint. He looks real suave and has trimmed down a lot for this role. He is very good during the stunt sequences, but does not shine very much where he is made to showcase expressions from Kathakali. This movie certainly proves one point - That Indrajith can certainly give the other heroes a run for their money if he's cast as in a lead role. He has everything that can make him a young hero, now that he has trimmed down a lot. The actor took a lot of his time out from his career for this movie and the result has shown in his looks. He is not able to rise above a certain level, only because the script lets him down. Thilakan, in a different role, with a ponytailed look does not really impress. He does the same things which he has done in many other similar movies. And the pony-tail looks really funny on him. Jagathy Sreekumar is as usual, very good and is not doing comedy in this movie for a change. Dhanya Mary looks nice and does not have much more than that to do. Lalu Alex has given one more really impressive performance after Ividam Swargamanu, as the Commissioner in this movie. But his character is conveniently forgotten at many crucial parts of the movie. Siddique has the toughest role in the movie, but since the character is not developed well, his role remains like a caricature and at many times, we feel as if he is overacting. His looks are indeed very good and very villainous, but the role hasnt been fleshed out well. The others in the cast are just adequate.

This movie belongs to its cinematographer Manoj Paramahamsa, who  just WOWed us with his work in Vinnaithaandi Varuvaaya some weeks back. Each frame in this movie is brilliant and there are some really extraordinary shots which makes Nayakan a real visual treat. Kochi has been shot in all its glory and so is Malaysia. At certain points, you even feel Kochi looks better than Kuala Lumpur, because of his superb shots in Kochi. Nayakan deserves a watch just because of its excellent camerawork by Manoj. Art Direction by Salu K George is very good and the sets have a raw look which goes with the mood of the movie. Stunts are done very well, especially the one before the interval, even though it looks very similar to the climax stunt sequence in the Hindi version of Ghajini. But the stunt sequences have been done really well and certainly deserves an applause. Editing is all right. Music by AR Rahman's erstwhile assistant Prashant Pillai is another very appealing part of the movie. The music and re-recording have been done very well and adds a lot more impact to the proceedings.

On the whole, Nayakan remains as an average fare because of its mediocre writing. But can be seen just for the visual beauty of the movie. Such movies are good signs that Malayalam Cinema is indeed progressing as far as style is concerned. Directors like Lijo and Amal Neerad and all sure know how to make stylish movies. All they need are good scripts, which they seriously have to work on, otherwise its very difficult for them to stay for a long time in the industry.

Rating - 3/5