Naran

The story of an orphan drunkard village lover. This film revolves around a typical kerala village called Mullankolli. Mohanlal plays the leading actor as Velayudhan who is an orphan came floating during flood. The village landlord Valiya nambiar ( Madhu ) and Kelappan chettan ( innocent ) loved and helped him during his childhood days. This is the reason why he has intimacy towards them and towards the village. All villagers feard Velayudhan. He is a good fighter and an adventure man too. None of the villagers challenged him for the fight. He himself think that he has responsibility to the village for the good going. Even though he is drunkard he has a good heart with love and innocent. The movie showing the love , emotion and the adventure of Velayudhan. Mohanlal and all other actors showed fabulous performance. The drunkard Velayudhan should touch the heart of the audience. Songs, bgms, comedy, fights, are well executed and nothing to say about direction (Joshy) as he drew the picture of a fellow drunkard Velayudhan. Hats off ! to Lalettan ( Mohanlal) and Joshy sir.

I don't know how many times I have seen this movie.. in this movie you can't see mohan lal at all!! it's all Mullankolli Velayudhan.. his innocent nature and stubborn theories and love and affection for his loved ones are the movie is all about.. Mohan lal lived as this character and you won't regret watching this movie..

The movie is a totally refreshing one with splendid performance by Malayalam's greatest actor. Mohanlal as Mullamkolli Velayudhan is a visual treat. The story is nothing new but the experience of Joshi and Mohanlal make it a "Must Watch" for the festival season. Mullankolli is a interior rustic village, near a river. Velayudhan (Mohanlal) is an orphan who came floating on a reef during floods and he was brought up by Valiya Nambiar (Madhu) a do-good and a feudal landlord of the area.

Velayudhan grows up into a riff-Raff, drunkard and a local rowdy with a good heart. He hates injustice and has set his own rules for the villagers who are scared of him including local moneylender and politician 'member' Kurup (Jagathy). Gopinathan Nambiar (Siddique) son-in-law of Valliya Nambiar who wants to lord over the village in his own way.

When Velayudhan plants a stick like lord Murugan's Vel, it means that it has his stamp of authority. The only man who he listens to is Valiya Nambiar and to a certain extent Kelappan (Innocent) who looked after him as a child. The villagers including Kurup and Gopinathan regularly bring goondas from outside the village to eliminate Velayudhan but they fail. There are three women in his life- a prostitute Kunnil Shanta( Sona Nair) old flame Janaki( Devayani) and Kelappan's daughter Leela (Bhavana). But things turn bleak for Velayudhan due to the machinations of Gopinathan which leads to the climax.

The only aim of producer Antony Perumbavor, director Joshi and writer Ranjan Pramod is to somehow cash in on Mohanlal image during the Onam season and make a hit. The music of Deepak Dev is hummable especially the Kavadi number, though there is only two songs. But what makes the film look fresh is the Hogennakal and Polachi locations and the art work of Joseph Nellikal and camera of Shaji is top notch mainly all the river and underwater scenes.

Go and watch it for Mohanlal. He is simply superb!!

Mohanlal has brought a different dimension to his skills. Naran has it all. It shows that the actor had worked hard to make the character living on the screen.

The story doesn't have anything new. Ranjan Promod has etched out the characters very carefully. Keeri-Bheeman Reghu's character is with a difference. The dosage of comic touch in the dialogs are in correct level. There are clichés in the movie. Songs would have been avoided. The theme song is hummable.

Shaji's camera work is first rate. The rain/underwater scenes make you wet. After all kudos to Joshi.

Anti-heroes are always risky. For a small mistake in execution can result in big loss. With a gripping script, Ranjan Pramod and Joshy knew only one man cud do 100% justification to the character. And he did it again this time. Mohanlal didn't act as Velayudhan. He came live on-screen. His transformation from a rogue anti-hero to a human hero is pakka.

Mohanlal is the only one who can don this role. The characterisation is perfect. Right from Lal's intro, each and every action/one-to-one dialogue sequence was received by the audience with huge applause. Even after the film, the theatre was filled with clapping sound and applause. Everyone enjoyed it for sure.

To conclude, I would say Naran struck the right balance between human and super-human. The right mix of action, adventure, comedy and sentiments has resulted in a delicious feast.