Njaan Prakashan

 

Watched my first movie of the year. Thank good ness I was watching it for free, cause I would only have paid for a third of it. Directed by one of those remaining veterans of the malayalam film industry, and written by another , I guess the movie came out with high hopes. And with a skilled young actor playing the lead, hopes where heightened.

And I don't know what others felt, but I definitely felt let down. That is what happens when everyone just stays within their comfort zones, they won't take risks.

This movie is definitely one of those you can watch with your family (big or small), falling into a rapidly depleting genre of clean, family movies. But even then, its something which could have been told in a 30 minute short movie by an amateur team. As always, Sreenivan does not miss any opportunity to poke fun at today's average Malayalee. Right from being jobless due to jobs not being prestigious enough, to people joining politics with a fastrack-get-rich plan, to the fact that every manual job in Kerala is now done by unskilled Bengali immigrants, he is right in pointing out these realities. One feels sorry looking at the..well, sorry state of the state.  But the twist in the end, is not really a twist. I could see it from a mile away.

The movie addressess the problems faced by nurses, not only in Kerala , but all over the country. Nursing as a profession does not command the same respect and pay as doctor’s, though both of them cannot survive without the other. Long ago, they were paid the same, I hear, but over the decades, the pay gap between these jobs have widened. So much that nurses barely make minimum wage, if there was ever such a concept in India, even though they put in twice as many hours on the job.  This is compunded by the fact that they have to work in shifts, and even on holidays, as hospitals are essential services. So far the nurses depicted in movies are always females (22FK, Takeoff), and Dir Anthikad breaks that stereotype by casting a male as the nurse.

But that is the only refreshing thing about Njaan Prakaashan. Everything else is twice distilled, refined Anthikkad fare.