‘Naaradan’ succumbs to the blurred and hazy screenplay and suffers from a lack of depth in writing. Even with invigorated performances and top-notch production values, Abu’s film appears strangely superficial and severely lacks the searing impact that you crave from it.
Aashiq Abu’s ‘Naaradan’ intends to be an expose piece on the sleazy, shady world of television news journalism, but stops short of being compelling fare, despite having a very important story to tell. The subject is worthy without doubt, but there is a dysfunctional air that pervades throughout, that squanders the golden opportunity that the film has in hand.
CP (Tovino Thomas), short for Chandra Prakash, helms Narada Television, and in a few days since its launch, manages to steer it right to the top of the TRP charts, with a sting operation that chucks out a minister from the cabinet. As for his crew, the message is loud and clear – their boss wants them to dig dirt, and the dirtier it gets, the better.
‘Naaradan’ steams ahead at a brisk pace, and Abu plants a media rival to CP in Pradeep (Sharafudheen), a media journalist who still has his ethics intact. It could perhaps be just a coincidence, as the disclaimer at the beginning of the film suggests, that the man meets a fate that is strikingly similar to a real-life incident that we had heard about, not so long back.
What works wonderfully well is the film’s portrayal of a group of young men and women who work seamlessly behind and before the camera in claustrophobically spaced studio rooms and out of it, for pay checks that never arrive. With elbows nudging against each other, on seats placed chokingly close to one another, they stream news stories across the air that appear before us on flashy screens that divulge none of the sweat and smell behind them.
The message is loud and clear, but Unni’s script barely rises above the basic premise that it sets its spotlight on. There is so much of potential here that you cannot blame anyone for wanting more, and when that doesn’t happen, ‘Naaradan’ strikes you as a toothless response to a perverted media culture that would stop at nothing to get things done their way.
There are scenes that knock you off your seats for the wrong reasons, like CP and his interactional sessions with his life coach Ramji. On his way to be a ruthless go-getter, Ramji helps CP grow a sabre tooth or two, but the scenes are nothing short of a slog to get through, and strike you as conceited to the core.
Along comes Shaakira Mohammed (Anna Ben) a vibrant young lawyer who appears on court on behalf of Mudiyan, a rapper who finds himself crossing CP’s path, much to the ire of the media tycoon. Ben does bring in a bit of vigor to the proceedings, but the film gradually slides back to being an empty experience, after a few jump starts that suggest development.
Almost as if unsure as to where it should be headed, ‘Naaradan’ finds itself quarantined in a court room for most of its latter part, where it brings in a Munsiff turned Magistrate, Chothi (Indrans) to steer things straight. Through him, and the ostentatiously haughty senior lawyer Menon (Renji Panicker), the film tries to hint at the ever existent caste politics in the state, but it comes across as an attempt that is all over the place.
Tovino is remarkably good as CP, and there are excellent performances from Sharafudheen, Anna Ben, Joy Mathew, Indrans and Renji Panicker that supplement the lead act. Jaffar Zadique’s camera zooms in and out of studios and media offices with outstanding ease, and the musical score (Sekhar Menon, Neha Nair and Yakzan Gary Pereira) is impressive.
‘Naaradan’ succumbs to the blurred and hazy screenplay and suffers from a lack of depth in writing. Even with invigorated performances and top-notch production values, Abu’s film appears strangely superficial and severely lacks the searing impact that you crave from it.
Verdict: Average