Naam Malayalam Movie

In this quiet celebration of friendship, there is no room for romance and violence. 'Naam' (We) is a clean campus film that focus on friendship. But the problem lies in the soul of the theme that is not adequately penetrated into the narration to maintain the flow. May 12, 2018 By K. R. Rejeesh

In this quiet celebration of friendship, there is no room for romance and violence. "Naam" (We) is a clean campus film that keeps lewd dialogues at bay with a specific focus on friendship. But the problem lies in the soul of the theme that is not adequately penetrated into the narration to maintain the flow. The template is predictable as there are cliched elements like trip to scenic places, ragging and making friendship etc. Debutant director Joshy Thomas Pallikkal deliberately sustains a positive vibe throughout the action and perhaps, this approach compensates the shortcomings of his script.

Unlike films of this ilk, the action is mostly set in a men's hostel on the college campus. Maintained by Fr. Mathew Plavanakkuzhy, played by Antony Thekkek, the film falls on track when new students got admitted to the hostel. Friendship blossoms among a host of students, including Anilkumar (Rahul Madhav), Harris Mohammed (Shabareesh Varma), Murali Krishnan (Abhishek Raveendran), Kunchako (Noby Marcose), Seban aka Masthan (Saiju Kurup) and Aju Koshy (Tony Luke) in the hostel.

At college, they are joined by Neha John (Aditi Ravi), Anna Philip (Gayathri Suresh) and Maya (Marina Michael). So you have quite a lot of characters in this tiny tale that mainly focuses on Shyam (Ajay Mathew), who cherishes a big dream, and the efforts of his friends to realise his dream. Amidst the charm of the visuals created by Sudhi Surendran and Karthik, the treatment appears to be peripheral to make it appealing and engrossing.

The characterisation of Fr. James Kottayil (Renji Panicker) is simply for taking favourable decisions for the hostel inmates while reference to children-parent relations brings in the emotional quotient in the plot. Still, all these fail to evoke empathy in sensitive minds.

Joshy conceives the whole action as an ode to friendship stressing on the sacrifice and power of camaraderie. But the director fails to induce the necessary momentum with intensity in a pleasant and positive milieu.