A still from “Nunakuzhi”
If there was ever a “measuring instrument for exaggeration” on a film set, it would be used in many sequences in Jeethu Joseph’s Namakazi. Almost everything, including the performances, is two notches above the normal limit. Still, much of it works well for the kind of film it is.
Namakazi is based on a series of lies and mix-ups, one on top of the other. It all starts with a laptop that the tax authorities confiscate during a raid on a company. Eby (Basil Joseph), who reluctantly took over the company after his father’s death, had stored some private videos on the laptop. For Eby and his wife (Nikhila Vimal), it is unthinkable that anyone else will see the videos, so he sets out to find the IT officer (Siddique).
His path crosses that of Resmitha (Grace Antony), who is going through difficult divorce proceedings. Meanwhile, a dentist’s body lies in his office and a woman has been accidentally locked in one of the rooms. In another parallel, an aspiring filmmaker (Althaf Salim) is at a script reading with a pompous film star (Manoj K Jayan). As you might expect, all these parallels converge in one gigantic, confusing mix-up.
Nunakuzhi (Malayalam)
Director: Joseph
Pour: Basil Joseph, Grace Antony, Nikhila Vimal, Siddique, Baiju Santosh, Manoj K.Jayan, Saiju Kurup
Action: A tax raid on a private company leads to a series of mix-ups when the immature managing director goes in search of his confiscated laptop.
Duration: 125 minutes
Jeethu Joseph, who has not tried humor for a long time, relies on a pure comedy in NamakaziKR Krishna Kumar, who previously played Jeethus 12. ManAnd Koomanhas a steadily paced script where the one-liners never stop coming. Much of it works thanks to the quick editing that constantly switches between all the parallel scenarios and the comic timing of the actors, be it the young or the experienced ones. For every joke that doesn’t work, two others do. Even the few thriller elements in the story are peppered with humor. Krishna Kumar must have had quite a task to seamlessly link the parallel scenarios together without it coming across as over the top.
Basil Joseph plays to his strengths as the man who simply refuses to grow up and ends up in pits of his own making, although his performance is a little louder than usual. An extended “poison mix-up” scene with Grace Antony is a blast. Baiju Santosh plays the role of a cop with a knack for making you laugh. Although it’s the kind of role we see him in so often, he manages to bring an element of freshness to the story with his trademark dialogue style. The same goes for Siddique.
On the whole, Namakazi is an entertaining and fast-paced ride that proves that Jeethu Joseph can do more than just thrillers.
Nunakuzhi is currently in cinemas
