Nagaram is a film that takes its plot from a never discussed topic in commercial films. The director M.A. Nishad, who made his directorial debut last year with Prithviraj starrer Pakal, is once again on to discuss some social, and at the same time environmental talk of utmost relevance in his second venture Nagaram. The film which is shot in a larger canvas than his first film has forty artists in prominent roles and tells the story of a village destined to receive the wastes of the nearby city.
Every city and even the town ships in Kerala face severe problems regarding disposal of tons of wastes accumulated daily in its premises. In the film, the focus is on Kochi Corporation which is also facing a similar crisis on waste management. Lalgudy Nanappan who has taken the quotation for waste removal hasn't found a suitable place to dispose the garbage. So, the Mayor of the city, Prof. Sreelatha Varma, a politician with ethics doesn't sanction his bills and all the works associated comes to a stand still. But the mayor too cannot answer to the growing questions raised by the opposition members. Nanappan has much support from many members inside the government machinery. These include the opposition leader in the City Council Stephen, Parasuraman who is the MLA of the area, Advocate Eenasu who is the legal consultant to the ruling party, and the State Health Minister.
With the help of the corrupt politicians, Nanappan plans to dump all the garbage in a village named Sivaramapuram.--a calm village of serene beauty with peaceful people living away from pollutions where three-fourth of the land is held by the family of Ponnayya Thevar. The majority of the villagers were farmers who take lands as lease from Thevar and use it for agriculture. Thevar was a peculiar character who was always hungry for making money. Lalgudy manages to impress Thevar and agrees on a big amount as rental for giving space for the waste disposal and thus all the waste from the city starts flowing to Sivaramapuram. The villagers are made to believe with the help of a popular peer group leader, Vasukuttan that a Waste Treatment Plant would soon come up in the village, thus providing employment to many. But little do they know about the environmental problems that are soon to engulf them.
The film tells the tale of destruction of the village and its habitat, on through the characters of Chinthamani Ammal, an elderly lady, who is a do-gooder who reaches everywhere in the village on her moped, Mayamma, an Anganvadi teacher and daughter of the local physician, Ramanunni Menon and Poonkodi, who makes a living by selling flowers .
The resistance against the dumping starts with the arrival of a young journalist Radhika who happens to be the daughter of Mayor of Cochin Corporation. She embarks on a crusade on behalf of the innocent. Realizing the tempo of the situation they are in, the villagers also began supporting Radhika and there starts a movement-- a movement to resist the city men from destroying the villages around.
This time with an impressive storyline, Director M A Nishaad has graduated in film making, but still the film needs much to be desired to get converted into an interesting stuff. The screenplay writer Rajan Kiriyath has done a good work in maintaining the tempo of the issue, in the scripts and dialogues, but the director has just tried to visualize the bare script than to add his bulk of creativity with powerful and poignant shots. So the audience very well feels that he had made a rather ordinary film, even while dealing with very relevant and current story-line Sadath behind the camera too didn't make any worth mentioning work than to capture the scripts in its bare elements. The frames often resemble that of a television serial with wider shots and continuity jumps.
