Oru Nerinte Nombaram Malayalam Movie

Feature Film | 2013
Critics:
I really have no idea as to what the makers had in mind when they decided on making a film as 'Oru Nerinte Nombaram'. But it remains that films as these will continue to be made, and would serve neither the purpose of an experiment nor of entertainment.
Jun 8, 2013 By Veeyen


'Oru Nerinte Nombaram' is set on a film director's mind, who is obsessed with Seetha (Vaigha), a victim of sexual abuse whom he once happened to see on the streets. Unable to erase the memory, he settles down to pen down his thoughts, thereby writing her story - a horrendous tale of exploitation and abuse.


Its abuse that remains at the core of the film, and it starts off with the child being abused when she is just a kid. Later she is gang raped by her stepfather and his friends. Left alone on the streets, she is raped by a policeman. Thrown at the mercy of a politician, she is raped by him as well. She adopts a retarded boy from the streets, and he rapes her.


Structurally, the film presents a novelty of sorts in that it makes use of the same actors in different roles, so much so that its lead actor appears in almost every other scene, in one role or the other. One does wonder however, as to that prompted the makers to attempt a strategy as this.


Barring this innovation, there is little else in the film that would retain your interest in it. The story of abuse that has been told and retold a zillion times already, receives no further special treatment in 'Oru Nerinte Nombaram'. On the contrary, the emotional element that is so vital in films as these, has gone totally missing, making it an exercise in futility.


The script is like a flimsy thread that threatens to snap at any point. Each time the woman is raped, along comes a messiah, thanks to the writer's imagination, who slays the perpetrator. Though the idea sounds interesting, the execution is far from satisfactory.


What is disheartening is that while the film states unambiguously that it's concerned with the trauma and troubles that women go through, there are little efforts to keep the voyeuristic eye of the camera at bay. It does slither all over the victims of abuse, unceremoniously adding further insult to the injury already caused.


There is a song that drops in like a bombshell from nowhere, making you wonder if everything was all right. I mean, right at the midst of a sob story, props up a song when they take the girl and a man to the hills, where they do a Bhangra of sorts. And you feel like screaming and running away, crying out for your dear life.


Anoop perhaps has done something spectacular by donning sixteen roles in the same film (according to the posters; I admit I failed to count). He does a neat job of most of these, except the ones in drag. However, for the first time, we also get to realize how tiresome it is to watch the same face again and again, donning all possible roles in the film. Vaigha does well as the girl who has been through hell.


I really have no idea as to what the makers had in mind when they decided on making a film as 'Oru Nerinte Nombaram'. But it remains that films as these will continue to be made, and would serve neither the purpose of an experiment nor of entertainment.

Veeyen

   

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