The highlight of the new movie on theatres –‘Nagaravaridhi Naduvil Njaan' was off course the return of Sreenivasan to writing after a gap of a couple of years. More over it also boasted of the hit pair of Sreenivasan and Sangeetha who worked big time in 'Chinthavishtayaya Shyamala' 14 years back. The movie directed by debutante Shibu Balan is but a pale shade of many of Sreenivasan's famous scripts of the past.
The movie has Sreeni as Venu, an old comrade of a revolutionary party, who but found an abode at Gulf. With the money that he earned working as a house driver, Venu has managed to help his big joint family but on return found little for himself. He with his small family consisting of his wife, Sunitha and only daughter aspiring to become an MBBS doctor, is living in a rented house in the town. Venu is ready to do any work for a living but frightened of the competition with Bengali immigrants is working as a security in a big flat .
Venu is frightened by his daughters’ decision to commit suicide if she doesn’t get a seat in the MBBS entrance. He decides to sell his five cents of lands that he owns in the town, so that she can be assured a payment seat if she fails in the entrance. But to Venu’s shock, he could locate his piece of land as a dumping yard of all waste materials of an elite housing colony . With the help of Davis, from whom he purchased the land, Venu now is all set to somehow cleanup the place, so that he can sell it for a good sum.
As usual with every other Sreeni scripts, this also deals with the ethos of lower middle class families of Kerala and discusses all the problems that the current keralite faces. As usual with every Sreeni characters Venu also specialises in commending on all issues with an acerbic tongue which is aptly responded by his wife Sunitha. The issues of waste management is of more prominence here and by the end of the former half, we expect another winner effectively impressing all kind of viewers. But after this the movie takes a surprise turn and takes a dip to a not so likable mode of a thriller. This but is filmed in unrealistic ways and the climax and the eco friendly preaching also does not appear in place .Sreeni seems to have lost his golden touch in this half which makes the whole movie a mediocre attempt.
As far as the direction from the debutante Shibu Balan is concerned , the first half told without gimmicks definitely prove him to be a pupil of Sathyan Anthikkad school, and this is what missing in the later half. Sameer Haq’s cinematography is average with plenty of highly lit scenes while the editing is fine with the move trimmed to 124 minutes. Govind Menon’s music is also lackadaisical with his BG scores appearing louder than needed for this kind of film.
Sangeetha in her return appears just as she took a break a decade ego, She also is fine in her character while Innocent as Davis and Vijayaraghavan as colony secretary Mayooravahanan is effective. There are plenty of other characters who appear odd for the film and many including Lal, Manoj K jayan and Joy Mathew play to their roles.
All in all, this ‘Nagaravaraidhy Nadivil Njan, has a taste of earlier Sreeni films , but doesn’t qualify in full as a rich family entertainer. Anyhow, a clean film with its realistic middle class values, it has its fine moments and may not bore you completely.
Rating -6.5/10
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