Alert: *Spoilers Ahead*
Film: Njandukalude Nattil Oridavela
Director: Althaf Salim
Cast: Nivin Pauly, Shanthi Krishna, Lal, Aishwarya Lekshmi, Ahaana Krishna
Nivin Pauly is the king of “sheepish cool” in Kerala. The 32-year-old star with the self-effacing shy smile currently rules over the hearts of cinema goers down south with several mega hits like Premam, Action Hero Biju and Om Shanthi Oshana to his credit in recent years. His latest - Njandukalude Nattil Oridavela, literally translated as An Interval In the Land of Crabs, is the much-awaited Onam release this year.
The film kicks-off with a voice-over narration introducing us to just another day in the life of the Chacko family - Sheela (Shanthi Krishna) and Chacko (Lal). Over the next few minutes we get to know that something is amiss, Sheela summons her son Kurian (Nivin Pauly) from London and we soon get to know that she fears that she has breast cancer and wants her family around her. Besides Kurian, Sheela and Chacko’s two daughters Sarah, Mary and her husband Tony make for the core of the family with their grandfather on the fringe. How the Chacko family comes to terms with and handles the cancer scare makes up for the rest of the film’s narrative.
Now, this is an interesting premise to begin with. A soulful yet light-hearted take about a family dealing with cancer has so many possibilities - there could be a ‘dysfunctional relation that’s repaired during a time of crisis’ strand in the story or there could be the exploration of ‘a character coming of age because of the tragedy unwinding around him’ element or if nothing else there could perhaps be a simple ‘mother-son relationship that finds a new meaning’ kind of take in the story.
However, writers Althaf Salim and George Kora don’t bring any such elements to their script. There is absolutely no graph that the characters in the film travel as it unspools over the next 130 odd minutes.
Njandukalude Nattil Oridavela falters on the vital element of emotionally connecting the audience to the Chacko family’s unfortunate twist of fate. The makers do away with any scenes of shock or sorrow when the news of Sheela’s cancer reaches the rest of the family, which is a brave move. But, the problem is that emotional void is left unfilled.
The film has no “moments” where we see the family connect with each other in their hour of grief. Instead, we have lighter to more comical moments (such as a long drawn out sequence in which Chacko unsuccessfully attempts to break the news to the various members of his family) which make their bonding and the tragedy at hand seem superficial.
A comparison to the earlier Nivin Pauly-starrer Jacobinte Swargrajyam (2016) comes to mind. In the Vineeth Srinivasan directed film, where a family comes together to survive a financial crisis, the family’s tension is palpable, the growth of almost every family member’s character arc is visible as the story unfolds, but there is no such layering or shades in Althaf Salim’s film.
Having said that, Njandukalude Nattil Oridavela still manages to engage, thanks mainly to its ensemble cast. Most admirable of the lot is Nivin himself who turns on his usual affable charm. Despite producing the film, the actor remains understated throughout the story. Nivin merges into the background with the rest of the family and is happy being part of the ensemble. He doesn’t make it a star’s platform to display his heroics or histrionics.
Shanthi Krishna is pitch perfect while Lal is endearing as the robust, towering dad with a booming voice who is too scared to take his wife for her first chemotherapy session.
Njandukalude Nattil Oridavela also has a few winning moments - an emotional exchange between Kurian and the home nurse Yesudas, when Kurian feels guilty about pursuing his love interest while his mother is suffering from cancer is particularly memorable, as is the first meeting between Kurian and Rachel (Aishwarya Lekshmi) in the hospital.
A stirring scene in the climax of the Chacko family out boating in Kodaikanal while awaiting a crucial test report redeems the film somewhat, but it’s too late. What could have been a magnificent touching tale of a family’s emotional journey is reduced to a fizzy, forgettable trip to nowhere in particular.
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