Political and social satires have been presented successfully in malayalam cinema both critically and commercially. Panchavadippalam, Sandesam and Akkare are some of the names which comes into mind instantly. Lenin Rajendran, who was made only 10 odd films in his entire career has one of his best works in Premnazeerine Kanmaanilla (Prem Nazir is missing). The director combines some strong satire with the 'cinema inside cinema' concept too. Earlier such themes have come out in 'Lekhayude Maranam Oru Flashback' and recently 'Udayanaanu Thaaram' , film industry being the main theme lingering in the movie. Premnazirine Kanmanilla is a mirror towards the film makers, politicians and the contemporary kerala society of that time. As the title indicates , the main plot revolves around the kidnapping of Evergreen Hero Prem Nazeer, who plays himself in the movie !
The film starts inside a shooting location where prem nazir is kidnapped from , by a group of four youngsters (Vijayakrishnan, Maniyanpilla Raju, Srinivasan and a fourth unknown person). They hide him in a lone building inside the dense jungle with the help of their tribal friend played by achankunju. The rest of the movie or rather its majority deals with the incidents occuring after the kidnapping and how various people try to use and misuse the situation. There are hilarious instances where the home minister (Thilakan) accuses international powers for being involved in the crime and demands assistance from central. Then there is the opposition party which tries to topple the government with this issue. Differences of opinion between general public range between small time barber shop tiffs to major debates in liqour shops. The movie theatres are not far behind, screening every possible prem nazeer movie possible to exploit the situation. A memorable sequence relating to this is the one where a hoarding of Richard Attenboroughs 'Gandhi' is taken down to make way for an old prem nazeer matinee !
Movie progresses rather unusually, with plenty of nazeers old songs playing in between - which are instances where people remember their beloved star. The press and media meanwhile are ready with all sorts of stories relating to prem nazeer to be flashed in the unlikely event of any tragedy occuring. This sequence would remind viewers of the similiar hocus pocus that was goiing around in media before and after the death of actor thilakan recently. The screenplay cuts frequently from outside world to the life of nazeer and his 4 capturers. As there develops a 'stockholm syndrome' between them gradually, the lives of the 4 youth and their frustrating circumstances are revealed or kindof justified , which led to their decision to commit the crime. Climax is all too ordinary where finally police manage to capture the 4 youngsters and free nazeer.
Apart from nazeer and his captors , a lot of supporting roles are people from film industry who play themselves- mammootty, madhavi,innocent,shankar and p.g.viswambharan the director. The movie , if not for its rather serious comedy type of dialogues is easily comapred to a style of 'veloor krishnankutty' whose novel was made into panchavadippalam. An interesting plot shot well with clean serious satire , one could summarize. Not for people who'd expect a crime thriller, as the title may force him to think ! :)
