{mosimage}Logically speaking, this movie should be one of the earliest movie reviews I should have written, because it is a movie that was instrumental in turning me towards malayalam movies for a wholesome sensible entertainment. Niram has a sweet memory associated with it. It is the first movie I went with Preetha in Coimbatore. It is the movie that made me literally fall in love with Kunchacko Boban and Vidyasagar, skyrocketing them to my all-time favourites. It is the movie that introduced me a master movie maker - Kamal. Above all it is the first VCD of my personal VCD collection. A sad thing associated with this was a good bye movie of my favourite actress - Shalini.
Page 1
{mosimage}Niram, colourful as its title, is set in urban posh Christian families of Ernakulam and majorly shot there itself. Ebey Zackariah (Kunchacko Boban) and Sona Jacob (Shalini) are neighbours, close friends who share a deep bond of friendship including their birthday. Notorious they are and fun loving, attract Varsha (Joemol) and Prakash Mathew (Boban Alamoodan) respectively. At a week of Sona's absence, Ebey feels his love for her. Sona returns back only to tell him the Prakash's proposal, which prompts Ebey to hide his feelings & intentions and goes as a messenger between them. Sona starts feeling the drift between them after she had fallen in love. At the time about marriage was to happen, Sona unable to bear the very thought of getting separated asks Ebey why he hadn't fallen in love with her, so that they could have married and lived together always, leading to a tear jerking climax.According to me this movie worked mainly because of the chemistry between Kunchacko Boban and Shalini, nothing else. There was a warm camrederie between them on screen. You can check it in every of their frames. Even if the scene was others, in the background Kunchacko Boban and Shalini used to make all sort of naughtiness, which you might miss at the first time, but will catch up interesting in subsequent viewings. As per the story they share a same Birthday and same age. Both looked equally aged and in this case I take Kunchacko's side. He looked so innocent and cherubic with his charming childish face. All the lead players looked perfect for their parts. If Kunchacko and Shalini were bubbly, Joemol showed that longingness in her eyes and body language throughout the movie. Only guy left out was Boban Alamoodan, because had his part extended or given importance, it would have affected the whole movie.
The support characters cast selection was also mind blowing. Devan and Bindhu Panikker as Shalini's parents while Lalu Alex and Ambika as Kunchacko's were picture perfect. Kovai Sarala as Tamil maid instigating the love in Kunchacko Boban was bit loud in the Malayalam standards but she was enjoyable. Especially her reaction to the Babu's "Shukriya" was hilarious. In fact the word "Shukriya" itself had become a vital role in the movie.
Page 2
Scripted by Dr. Iqbal Kuttipuram, the movie had an earthy appeal and very natural. It represented the today's youth the way they are, not very filmi. I loved the college scenes especially the scene where Kunchacko Boban moves out of the rehearsal hall and the theatre scene where Kunchacko Boban searches for black ticket. He had tremendous innocent face in this movie. Same goes for the scene where Shalini asks why he hadn't fallen in love with her and his impulsive reaction. I was madly crazy about Kunchacko Boban for sometime after this movie. The movie was totally shot in indoors that it looked like happening in our neighborhood. Another character that deserves your attention is the short and sweet role of Boban Alamoodan's Grandmother, played superbly by KPAC Laitha. She was a live-wire in her scenes.{mosimage}Vidayasagar - Man who was instrumental in making this movie a musical. All the songs were wonderful both as situational as well as stand alone. Easily the pick of the album is the "Sahana" raaga based "Mizhi ariyathe..." and tearful "Yaathrayai Suryambharam". "Praayam thammil..." not only won the critical acclaim but also P. Jeyachandran a State award for Best Playback Singer. While the fast numbers "Minnithennum..." and "Shukriya.." were foot tapping. Vidyasagar had done a best job in the scene where Shalini enacts her proposal scene to Kunchacko Boban. A background score that deserves a special mention is when the love is realised in both Kunchacko Boban and Shalini at different scenes. Truly amazing! At a certain point of time my day used to start with "Mizhi Ariyathey...." and end with "Yaathrayai...". The songs sound mint fresh still. Infact I started acknowledging Vidyasagar seriously only after this movie.
This movie was a bumper hit and so much was its impact that it wiped out the entire track record of Kamal. Everybody started seeing Kamal as campus movies director after this movie. Kamal ofcourse followed it with "Nammal" and "Swapnakoodu" but "Niram" always stands special as the movie that celebrated friendship and love. The movie lived upto its title - Colours. Every frame and scene is well co-ordinated with colours making it a viusal feast, that too in indoors alone. Kamal's regular P. Sukumaran captured that colour patterns beautifully.
{mosimage}This movie was a hit in almost all the languages it was remade that too with newcomers. In Telugu it was made as "Nuvve Kaavali" - with debutants Tarun & Richa Pallod, "Tujhe Meri Kasam" in Hindi with Ritesh Deshmukh & Genelia D'Souza and "Ninaggagi" in Kannada with Kutty Radhika & Puneet Rajkumar and the sole exception was Tamil which had Prashanth and Shalini, but had a trouble in its release. The movie is evergreen that its is fresh no matter you see after many years or many times.