Review: Njan is a courageous effort

Njan is not a completely satisfying film, but it is a courageous effort, writes Paresh C Palicha.

'I, Me, Myself' is the flavour of the season in Malayalam films if you go by titles. First there was Hi I'm Tony by Lal Jr, then there was Rajeev Ravi's Njan Steve Lopez and now director Ranjith has come out with deceptively simple Njan. There is no similarity in the concepts or the subjects of these films; it is just a coincidence that the titles are similar.

 Ranjith looks at the lives of people who try to make a difference but die in anonymity because they refused to align with any political ideology and consider humanism to be higher than any other ism.

This film is inspired by T P Rajeevan’s novel, K T N Kottoor: Ezhuthum Jeevithavum. KTN Kottor, a social reformer in the pre-independence days, vanished on the day the country gained independence.

The film starts many decades later, when the police track down a young IT professional Ravi (Dulquer Salmaan), who maintains a blog under the pseudonym Kottoor. His writings have ruffled many political feathers and the powers that be are upset with him because of his snide remarks against them. He is let off with a warning that he should be careful with his words and tone down his comments.

The story of Ravi is used only as a springboard to dive into the lore of Kottoor. Ravi is associated with a theatre group named Root headed by Joy Mathew who is playing himself in this film. The members of Root goad him to script a play based on K T N Kottoor's life, which has inspired the title of his blog.

Next, we see Ravi piecing together the life of Kottoor by visiting the place and staying there. And we see the members of the drama troupe assuming the roles of people in Kottoor's life and Ravi himself becoming Kottoor.

He imbibes humanistic values and refuses to align his movement with the Congress or the Communist ideology. Thus he ends up as an anonymous foot soldier in India's freedom struggle and does not even get credit for the social reforms he initiated in his region.

Kottoor's personal story too is filled with disasters and calamities that leave him broken in the end.

The film belongs to Dulquer and the ensemble cast. Njan is not a completely satisfying film, but it is a courageous effort.

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