When the hero of Nazrani, David John Kottarathil (Mammootty) makes his entry in a private helicopter, we gasp for air seeing this indulgence. Remember the scene in Udayanannu Tharam, where Udayan gets tense while writing the climax of his first script because it will require shooting in the Railway platform, which costs Rupees 5 lakhs.
I imagined Ranjith going through similar pangs while writing the helicopter scenes! But Ranjith being a master writer fully justifies the need of the helicopter just before the interval.
If you are wondering why Ranjith's craftsmanship is discussed at length when the film is actually directed by veteran Joshiy, is because Nazrani has Ranjith's stamp all over it. It is as if he had set out to redeem himself after the disaster of Prajapathi. That does not mean that everything about Nazrani is drastically new. It is just that things are presented after being properly dusted and shined.
The skeletal of the story is the same as in any Ranjith film of the past decade and half. Only the garb of the characters has changed to the rich rubber estate owners of the Kottayam region.
David has to bear the cross of his elders' wrong doings. His lady love has to wait for him for what seems like eternity. He becomes the protector of the weak amongst his people against the big bad world.
The going is good while we are in the familiar territory, but once the premise exhausts itself, the writer has no inkling about how to culminate it.
If we go as per streamlined narrative; there is drama from the word go. We have David's would have been father-in-law Eepan killing his concubine in a moment of rage on the eve of his daughter's wedding. In turn Eepan is killed off by David's people when he tries to save Eepan's illegitimate daughter from being a victim of the same rage. So, the wedding is indefinitely postponed because Eepan's wife is not ready to marry her daughter to the son of her father's murderer. Confusing? There's more.
That was ten years ago; today David lands in the Women's college in his helicopter to pick his love Sara (Vimala Raman) who is teaching Shakespeare's Tempest (what symbolism, eh?) in a class. The reason for David's dramatic entry is to celebrate the tenth anniversary of their would-have-been wedding. Later he tells her that life would be unbearable if they don't indulge in such small thrills (aha!).
Hereafter it is David's show all the way. He plays Good Samaritan to the needy, fights ruffians who are bend the discipline of the Club of which he is the Secretary and many such things.
Then the narrative takes a spin, when a scion of a marginal political party with clout to pull strings is murdered and Sara's step sister is implicated as the culprit. From now on, David becomes her protector, dodging her from the Police and taking on the real people behind the conspiracy.
Somehow, the narrative loses steam post interval, as it becomes a typical murder mystery without much momentum, which leaves Nazrani to be just an average film.
Rediff Rating: 
