Suraj Venjaramoodu in ‘Nagendran’s Honeymoons’
| Picture Credit score: Particular Association
Nagendran, the titular character in Nagendran’s Honeymoons, seems to be a creation of comfort. He’s written as a naive, hapless man who would roll with out resistance in any course that he will get kicked. Nothing seems to curiosity him besides good meals. Not even a glimmer of want is seen in his eyes when he seems to be at any of the six ladies he marries, one in every episode of the collection.
This portrayal is handy in deflecting the anger that one should naturally really feel in direction of a person who indulges in serial marriage fraud. His shut pal Soman (Prasanth Alexander), a wedding dealer and a drama artiste, is the character written in such a approach as to bear the brunt of the anger. The scheming Soman devises plans to repair Nagendran (Suraj Venjaramoodu)‘s marriage with a number of ladies, one after the opposite, to swindle the dowry cash.
Nagendran’s Honeymoons (Malayalam)
Director: Nithin Renji Panicker
Forged: Suraj Venjaramoodu, Prasanth Alexander, Kani Kusruti, Shweta Menon, Ramesh Pisharody, Grace Antony
Runtime: 6 episodes, 30-35 minutes every
Storyline: Lazy Nagendran has desires of going to the Gulf and comes up with a plan to become profitable for the journey: marriage and dowry.
Nagendran goes with the plan with out resistance, abandoning every of the ladies with out regret in order that he can get sufficient cash to fly to Kuwait with the assistance of one other pal. In one other writing alternative notable for its comfort, many of the ladies have a flaw; Lilly (Grace Antony) has psychological well being points and indulges in bouts of violence, Laila (Shweta Menon) is out from jail having served a time period for homicide, Savithri (Niranjana Anoop) is pregnant from one other man and Thankam (Kani Kusruthi) is a intercourse employee. A criminal offense dedicated in opposition to a flawed character would look like forgivable. Nagendran additionally will get a shot at redemption with an honourable confession, fairly uncharacteristic of how he was behaving until that time.
Many of the episodes are iterations of the identical narrative, of the fraudulent duo entrapping a susceptible girl in marriage. One factor that saves the poorly written episodes is the change in locale in every, from the backwaters to the highlands all throughout Kerala. Some considerate work will get achieved in recreating the late Seventies time interval through which the story is ready, however the background rating used to evoke the interval solely works at just a few factors, whereas it seems jarring at different locations.
For filmmaker Nithin Renji Panicker, who debuted with the controversial Kasaba (2016) and made the quite forgettable Kaaval (2021), among the episodes in Nagendran’s Honeymoons are indicators of slight enchancment. However, some others, just like the one set in Ottapalam, are written unimaginatively. The whole prolonged a part of Savithri’s romance with a university professor and the emotional drama in her family would make us ponder whether it was a spoof on some previous movie. However, no, the makers are lifeless critical about this.
The saving grace within the collection is the efficiency of Prasanth Alexander and, to an extent, that of Suraj Venjaramoodu, Grace Antony, Shweta Menon, and Kani Kusruthi. It was additionally a pleasure to look at yesteryear actor Janardhanan after a very long time. Nagendran’s Honeymoons is an unimaginatively written collection that doesn’t tread any new floor.
Nagendran’s Honeymoon is at present streaming on Disney+ Hotstar
