Njan

At its heart "Njan" is an excellent story. The director, Renjith, has a wonderful way of seamlessly integrating the past with the present accompanied by gorgeous cinematography. The setting and costumes are equally gorgeous: it is all perfectly authentic. The sparse yet aesthetically rich interiors of old Kerala village homes as well as the expanse of the sky and rural countryside add so much to the story. The acting is also superb. Dulquer Salmaan does an excellent job in his role as Kottoor and Ravi. On top of that one gets a narrative that reveals a compelling and perhaps little-known slice of Indian history. One of the most beautiful films I've ever seen.

I began watching Njan without much expectations.. In fact, if anything, I expected it to be another artsy-fartsy work, just meant for awards and the like. But, trust me, when I say this.. within a few minutes or so of the beginning, I was completely enthralled. A brilliant cinematic experience with a strong and superb cast comprising of some of the best talents that the Malayalam film industry has to offer nowadays, lead by young Dulquer Salman himself! I've been one of the greatest aficionados of DQ's acting skills from Usthad Hotel. Unfortunately, quite a couple of his works thereafter were along the same lines, (ABCD, etc comes to mind.. and honestly, I was becoming slowly disappointed in DQ's choice of scripts. In fact, as much as I enjoyed the fresh whiff of air that DQ was in Usthad Hotel, I didn't enjoy Bangalore Days one bit. In fact, I felt that DQ was the only element worth watching in BD. And yet, to this day, I haven't watched BD completely. I simply couldn't sit through it.

But Njan.. Under the able captainship of Ranjith, DQ truly proved to me that he has, in fact, inherited some of his dad's acting genes. Njan kept me interested through it's entire run-time. Coupled to it was the amazing soundtrack by Bijibal. The songs were simply melodious, especially "Maniyilanjikal". I have lost count of the number of times I've listened to it.

I can't recall the last time I'd enjoyed a malayalam (or Hindi) movie, as much as I'd been mesmerized by Njan. I haven't read the novel/short story by T. P. Rajeevan, upon which this movie is based. But I may, some time, especially if there would be a English translated version of it.

Once again, thank you dear Ranjith & DQ, and the rest of the stellar team behind this work of Art. Hopefully Ranjith, DQ and Bijibal would reunite for such meaningful cinema again and keep avid movie watchers & admirers of good acting, such as myself, happy and content.

This is one of a work of art ! Each and every frame, dialogue, setting is a perfect !

Highly recommended.

Renjith's un-recongnized masterpiece.

It's a gem of a movie with every frame, layer, shot, dialogues, characters et all have a coincidental screen presence as if it happened real but yet so unreal. A magic in the movie, which even the maker might not have realised.. it is so rooted, so raw..