In-depth analysis of Niram
Waking up early has its own pros and cons. I don’t know if today’s outcome is good or bad- I watched a malayalam movie from early 2000s and had a good time. Which eventually led me to write this review; I had to get it out of my system 😓
So, here goes my in-depth analysis of Niram, a super hit Malayalam movie that has accurately portrayed college life, friendship, family relations etc and also supplied new words like kaypology, madhurification, olippeeru-polipperu to the mallu land. I was eight or nine years old when the movie released. Back then, the movie gave me goosebumps and aspirations about the fun-only-college life ahead. Not to say, how happy I am to revisit the movie, after having finished my college life.
Anyways, before I begin, let me take a moment to thank Imaan Sheikh, Kanan Gill, and Biswa Kalyan Rath for inspiring me enough to review movies.
Niram- Kerala’s own Kuch Kuch Hota Hai
Oops. Should I have given Spoiler Alert?
Welcome to the world of Abi Da and Sona Da, BFF for life!
‘Da’ is the movie’s contribution to campus vocabulary, before ‘bro’, ‘macha’, and ‘machu’ conquered it. It is arguably different from the pre-existing ‘Eda’ that was used to address men. ‘Da’ on the other hand, encompassed all genders.
Da is the bro of the 2000s
Perhaps to show that their relationship is way higher than average friendships, other characters talk about this special friendship often. Very Often. Here are the WTF points I have taken note of, for your understanding.
- Their fathers are friends since childhood, they live next to each other
- Abi and Sona were born on the same day, almost at the same time
- They are nicknamed ‘Siamese twins’
- If that’s not enough, it is said that if one sneezes, the other one will also sneeze. Erm
- They take ‘sharing is caring’ way too seriously. Either they exchange gifts if both of them get something or give it to the other person if only one gets a gift.
Well, well, well.
They both go the same college, have the same set of friends, roam about together. Gawd! They can make any close-trauphobic go nuts.
Did I mention that they are insensitive and bully others as well? Their class mate, Varsha, for instance, is a butt of all their jokes as she suffers from some chronic disorder of clumsiness that makes her fall down often.
Come on, grow up guys!
The movie’s highlights are its songs, consequently the choreography. Like this!
Or, the casual placement of a MJ lookalike in the middle of a slow song. Talk of pop culture expectations of college life!
Now, like the 95% of rom-coms, there is a love triangle, er with a tail. There is a singer dude Prakash who has declared his love for Sona. It is known that the clumsy girl they make fun of, Varsha, is also borderline obsessed about Abi. And Abi, at some point starts loving Sona.
Here’s how I have tried to narrow down this complicated plot.
For the story to reach the climax, of course there has to be some momentum to the plot which doesn’t occur until Sona’s family hires a new house help. For some reason, she is from Tamil Nadu and makes a lot of movie references ( Oh So Subtle Stereotyping -_-).
It’s when she hints that Abi da might be in love with Sona da that, he begins to day dream about..wait for it.. marrying her! Like, why do these boys suddenly jump to marriage, ya?
What worries me most is that, these two people have literally grown up together and are also nicknamed ‘siamese twins’. Eww!
Abi lives in denial for some time until Prakash proposes Sona and their families agree to marry her off to Prakash. Poor Sona, now gets the time to think of the possibility that they both could live together if Abi da had dated Sona da. (Uuuhhh.. twist!)
In her rant about this possibility, our hero reacts with a random monologue on the meaninglessness of life. cough*typical*cough
He decides to leave the city, and Sona goes to see him off at the railway station (because, airports are costly). After what seemed like a DDLJ ending, jump cut to the parents who learns about the love triangle from none other than, house help akka.
Thankfully, now that it is known that Abi da loves Sona da and Sona da is okay with the prospect, the movie gets a happy ending.
*Wiping Niram sweat off my forehead*
