`Nallavan', coming from debutant director Aji John, is a movie which shows plenty of promise in its initial reels, but finds it difficult to deliver later. The movie with very complicated narratives, moving back and forth between flashbacks, has some fine visuals and appealing sequences which displays the genuine talents of its director, but lacks much in need of a credible, logical story line.
The movie has Jayasuriya as a simpleton Kocherukkan and `Manickyam' Mythili as Malli, two youngsters who were abandoned in their childhood in two neighboring rich households, to grow up together and fall in love with each other. They have an intense, easy going relationship where they impulsively land up into any decisions at short notice, like eloping from the village on an uneventful night, when Malli is offered as wife to Chidu (Suraj Venjaramoodu). But their very first attempt to run away is blocked by a cunning policeman Murugeshan (Siddhique). Kochurukkan somehow manages to escape from his eyes by bruising him fatally. This starts the cat and mouse game between the cop and the village lad, which destroys the latter's dreams and lands him behind bars in situations that appear one after another.
The problem with the movie seems to be its scripts and dialogues, that won't match up to the potentials of the story lines. And as it progresses to the later half, the structure of the movie becomes overly schematic and after the three jailbreaks of the hero, falls flat. Not a single note in this drama rings true with almost unbelievably clumsy writing. There are plenty of ideas and themes sprinkled all across the narratives, left with no big attempts of distinctive interest to enliven them
The highlights of the movie are the well set shots by Manoj Pillai and a debutant Pradeep Nair. Jayasuriya also tries his best to look sincere in the role and shows that if placed in a well settled story of any genre, he can deliver big results. Mythili is ok as Malli, but doesn't have the chemistry with Jayasuriya, that is much expected from a romantic thriller. Apart from the playfulness of the seemingly dumb pair, the needed amount of passion and intensity in the romantic sequences are absent. More over, the Tamil dialect which takes almost a half of the screen time also results in losing the grip on the narratives.
Siddique, as the corrupt police officer Murukeshan brings out a notable performance among the supporting cast. Anoop Chandran, Sudheesh, Saikumar, Vijayakumar and Biju Kuttan are in their familiar territories. The songs of the movie by Mohan Sithaara are average while Sanand George in the background scores seems to have worked overtime to create some engaging BG scores.
`Nallavan' is surely a missed opportunity to do something far more interesting than to tell a story of potential, surprisingly flat. Had the scripts been sharper as the folks acting in it and the effort taken on it, the movie could have offered much more than Jayasuriya in four getups.
