Oru Naal Varum -- REFRESHINGLY DIFFERENT

Oru Naal Varum -- All connoisseurs of good, contentful cinema was eagerly waiting for its release for a long long time. July 9 was the day and I must say it delivered. It never came up to my level of expectation but I thoroughly enjoyed the movie to the core. It is of little doubt in Malayalam Cinema that Lalletan - Sreenivasan had been the best Writer-Actor duo to have ever come up on screen. They were exemplary pair which made super hits like Naadodikattu, Pattanapravesham, T.P Balagopalan M A, Sanmanasullavarkku Samadhanam, Udayananu Tharam etc. Apart from this big highlight, the movie featured T. K Rajeev Kumar- the director who gave us films like Pavithram and Chanakyan.


The movie shows glimpses of the magic that happens when Mohanlal and Srinivasan get together. My opinion is that they have been more entertaining in the past, but this movie is a rare treat in recent times. Oru Naal varum is another social satire film by Sreenivasan narrating the fate of a citizen trying hard to build a house of his own facing the harsh regulations of town planning office. Here Sreenivasan narrates the plight of an ordinary citizen who is forced to run after files paying bribes and offering presents to every officers on the way, to help him to realize his dream. I am not revealing much about about the storyline of the movie as there are some simple guessable suspense elements involved here. The first half of the movie is totally impressive with witty one liners, realistic dialogues and the second half would have been much much better if the narrative would have been delivered in a spicy and engaging way cutting off some of the melodrama. In the downside, the movie could have been trimmed a bit, particularly in the second half where it meanders around unwanted territories, with little results. The core issue in this film is corruption and I must say this film is firmly rooted in the current day social circumstances of Kerala and conveys a strong message.


Mohanlal as usual, has a cakewalk through the role of Kolapulli Sukumaran, who is never projected as a superhero(even though we had two stunt scenes forced to the narrative), but as a helpless ordinary man with right dose of emotions and strains. It was quite enthralling to watch Lalletan portraying the nuances, body language and inherent innocence of the character with magnificent ease. Sreenivasan makes his character memorable by delivering some of his trademark gestures. But he has played his part pretty well, in general. Another special role is of Nedumudi Venu who plays a retired havildar. Siddique, Lalu Alex and Sameera Reddy also play to the demands of their roles. The music department of this film is handled by M G Sreekumar and he delivered his career best performance. The technical side of the movie is also pretty good with cinematographer Manoj Pillai doing a good job.


All in all, ‘Oru naal Varum’ is a good attempt which ended up as just above mediocre. Had the makers packed the second half with some more dramatic, spicy and interesting events without much melodrama, the movie could have been a much better offering. Have a watch, as it definitely has some genuine moments that will interest you. This movie may work out well in the box office, if marketed intensively.

My Verdict : 7.5 / 10.