Nasrani - Movie Review

Watching ‘Nasraani’, it was pretty easy to find that the movie could never hit the wall. Its outcome looked not so bleak considering that this Mammootty fare has more sequences for his fans to stand up and cheer than his recent three movies. Executed by ace director Joshy on the scripts of another director Renjith, whose track record of creating hits still remains not much modest. The film opened with best of the initials that was fetched by any Malayalam movie this year. But, cued in the conventional current mode, the film is a flattering tribute to ‘action less’ action movies which borrows the essential structure of the recent so called stuffs even while raising its own propaganda against the family rule in politics, that is a regular word in the current scenario.

'Nasraani' is fast paced, slickly made ride in the first half where the script is consistently snappy. It has a little of resourceful plotting and some deft dialogue touches, best seen during Mammootty's discourse running all through the movie. The film plays out as a well funded Movie, complete with over the top performances but toward the later half, like all the recent Joshy movies, this too loses its steam.

In the movie, Mammootty is David John Kottarathil, a rich unrestrained planter, known popularly by the fancy name D K. He spends most of his time boozing in the company of his friends in the Cosmo Club, in which he is the care taker and the secretary. He has got a little of tragic stories behind him as his father John accidentally kills Eappachayan, the father of his lady love and is on jail for life. This episode on their engagement day forced D K to stay back from marrying Sara Eapen, a college lecturer, even after 10 years from the incident.

David always roam around enjoying life, even in helicopters, with his driver Sukumaran (Kalabhavan Mani) and is always their to solve the problems of the club. In the film he has even a whopping introduction scene, which has him landing his helicopter in Sara's college campus and festinating her away to a lone mountain top to celebrate 10 years of living apart.

All is going not so bad for D K, till Annie (Mukta) a medical student and Sara's half sister who is taken cared by David, is accused by the police for committing the murder of Benny, an upcoming politician and the son of political king and former Revenue Minister M C Paul (Vijayraghavan) . With supportive evidences and witnesses, Police is all the way around to seize the girl who is said to have taken revenge and killed the future prospects of Malankara Congress, for having ditched one of her best friend who committed suicide following Benny's rejection!

Benny's untimely death has created upsets to the carefully laid plans of M C Paul to project his son to the top by making him an M L A in the Kadathuruthy by-election. Paul, who is other wise a family friend of David, now turns against him, as David is now in the mission to save Annie from the related problems. Aided by the villainous son Xavichan (Biju Menon) and top officials of the police, Paul is all set to make David's life a mess. The only way out for D K is now to find out and bring in the original culprits before the public and the law. And in the way, he is also to expose the family leadership pattern that is inherent in many parties including Malankara Congress and the police- politician nexus that is threatening the state.

The biggest minus of the film is the screenplay which rarely packs the punch line sequences that are the back borne to these kinds of films. The movie is essentially for the fans and general audience may not relish too much as the story point scores less. The first half of the film is alright but with innumerable sequences which moves past with every characters in the frame holding liquor glasses, works out like a video campaign for the associated labels. The second half slows down a bit. Joshy struggles hard to hold the film together, even though neither material nor execution makes his task enviable. The later half and the climax is the biggest yawn with, implausible melo- dramatic series of twists and turns that continues for long. The rather preachy final mishmash is neither realistic nor stylish.

The movie does have its moments - It works on its own terms, as a colorful adventure whose clichés and silliness will be acceptable to regular viewers because they're typical of the genre. Ranjit and Joshy repeats their stereotyped protagonist of a macho man, ever powerful even to make the CM behave as per their schedules. Mammootty as D K pass over the role with little effort which have him presenting casual comedies, soft romance and punch lines with equal consummate skills. Vimala as Sara also manages to infuse her cool dude character with some charisma when the meandering screenplay allows her to do so. The production values are really excellent. The abundant number of artists and innumerable extras who appear in every alternate scene give a big feel to the movie, evenly supported in camera by Shaji and in sets and art by Joseph Nellikkal-both Joshy regulars. The film also has two passable songs by Anil Panachooran-Biji Bal team.

Director Joshy does a polished, workmanlike job, assembling a package attractive in its visual elements rather than its content. Any way the film proves once again the crowd pulling abilities of the mega star. And ultimately it was the thing that was essentially expected from the flick. So, to watch Mammootty and nothing much more, just have a try.