Nanpakal Nerathu Mayakkam

On a return bus trip from a holy Christian shrine, a group of Malayalees doze off to discover midway that the cantankerous group leader has stopped the bus and walked off nonchalantly into a remote Tamil village to assume the life of a simple milkman. The Tamil family into whom he imposes his presence have barely recovered from the mysterious loss of their son and husband two years prior. The villagers are bewildered by this imposter who looks nothing like him but who acts to all intents and purposes like the deceased, a factor which is beguiling and unsettling. The daughter and brother of the deceased are incensed by the arrival of the interloper whilst the aged, blind mother affectionately accepts him without question.

As confusion reigns, it is left to the the father of the deceased to prevail upon the odd circumstances with kindness and empathy whilst marshalling the villagers into caring for the traumatised family of the imposter. The two wives caught up in this drama are linked by a shared trauma, the Malayalee wife dealing with the sudden inexplicable loss of her husband's personality and the deceased man's wife with a closure that has been cruelly disrupted.

Theni Eswar's thoughtful cinematography is a centrepiece of the artful direction of this movie - a homage to the acclaimed Indian filmmaker Satyajit Ray with its carefully framed snippets of the chief protagonist's intrusion into the unhurried pace and bucolic lifestyle of a remote village in Tamil Nadu. The dreamlike theme developed by director Lijo Jose Pallissery might well be an allegory of life (waking to consciousness) and death (falling asleep) and how faithfully we hold the roles dictated by family, society and culture on life's ephemeral stage. A rare delight to soak in.

The movie is visual poetry, from cinematography to acting to the beautiful tamil songs woven into the narrative, this movie is a wondrous delight for any aesthete.

Its a pleasure to see Mammootty sir at full throttle accompanied by a stellar supporting cast.

LJP is an auteur par excellence who is trying to engage the audience with an exploration into society, identity and its fickleness. This odyssey into the human mind is brilliantly supported by Theni Eswar who has clearly upped his game here, the unsymmetrical static shots with multiple activities in a single frame give this movie an ethereal feel.

Personally it still doesn't make sense to me why this movie was not given the Golden Pheasant at IFFK. This was more brilliant than the exploration of climate change and cultural identity done within Utama.

Overall a brilliant cinematic experience.

Each and every movies of LJP stands different from one and another here the film moves at a slow pace but still kept me hooked till the end and all the frames of the movie were a wide and static similarly the sound design was really so good and it was a different expirience. The movie interprets into a way in which the audience can decide what happened to James or whatever happened really did happen !. The movie starts from a conflict while sleeping and finds a solution after a sleep. I really enjoyed the movie it's pace, sound design, performances, frames and i think everyone should watch it.

A poetic exploration of human identity and belonging, which also serves as a critique to the unfortunate tendency of society and its naive, ignorant members to undervalue these aspects, prioritizing physical appearances over somebody's personality and intellect.

The cinematography captivated me, as it conveyed unuttered, insinuated context beautifully through skillfully arranged frames, enriching each pivotal scene with depth and meaning.

Performances were another standout aspect, particularly that of Mammootty, who once again showed his remarkable ability to embody any character with apparent ease and effortlessness!

That being said, I wish the writing had elaborated on the peculiar occurrence and provided additional context, as this would have enlightened the narrative.

Nonetheless, I do appreciate the story's ambiguity, which raises some intriguing questions about whether the event was merely a vivid dream, a distant memory, or something beyond comprehension that transcends boundaries of our tangible reality?

What more to tell about this man. Running out of superlatives to describe what he is upto in NNM. Just makes us go awww while he switched between James & Sundaram

Watch out for that bit where he behaves as Sundaram to Jame's relatives. Out of the world🙏 #NanpakalNerathuMayakkam

#NanpakalNerathuMayakkam What happens when James dozes off & wakes up as Sundaram & travels through his life for a day before he goes back to the world of James.

Something only Lijo can pull off & boy hasn't he done just that. Nothing complex this time. Absolute mastery by LJP🙏

Mammootty , LEGENDARY ACTING 🔥⭐⭐⭐ State Awards - It's not even a question or a discussion

National Awards - Only looking forward to that.