“I need your energy to be #1. I need your absolute loyalty." That’s the aggressive strategy for success that the Naradan lead character Chandraprakash or CP played by Tovino Thomas, has for his new TV news channel. And that very mantra forms the crux of this gripping socio-political thriller.
Aashiq Abu’s latest directorial venture is a deep dive into the world of Malayalam News Channels. Of TV journalism as we see it today. It pretty accurately captures the role digital image manipulation plays in propaganda and the use of marketing tactics to lay forth an agenda.
It exposes the machinations involved in protecting or using important men from the allegations they incur. It analyses, with uncomfortable clarity, the overlap between societal norms and political opportunism.
The film, written by Unni R, is quite a good watch for many reasons… the freshness of the topic, the timeliness of the content, the relatability, the down to earth, very spontaneous humour. It keeps a good pace too and the viewer is rarely fatigued, even when facts keep flying out of the characters’ mouths.
It shows you how easily television, through its mere power of suggestion can shoot down anyone’s reputation. How media outlets through devious ways actually almost guiltlessly incite mobs to riot. How they legitimise moral policing… you see and recognise from your own recent past all the experiences shown.
How all pervasive that television screen and its ticker messages are. How we actually invite all that muck right into our homes. How manipulated we really are.
Yet, Naradan falls way short of being truly a stand out film in the genre.
Take the character of CP for instance, he is shown initially as a diligent journalist - fair and quite rational. A bit low key but affable and not too ambitious. His transformation into a power hungry, arrogant beast of a man is cringe to say the least. Some random life coach puts him through some equally random life lessons and he comes out Arnab Goswami-like, just unbelievable.
Tovino himself is a letdown. He seems to have two expressions, one of a deadbeat and the other of a rage machine. It’s a completely underwhelming performance. He was rather convincing as the fiery TV anchor on the job. Perhaps aided by the edits and music, I’d say.
Naradan’s other characters though, give some pretty power-packed performances. Anna Ben as the lawyer with quick-witted comebacks is excellent, exuding a very sincere energy as a newbie lawyer intent on taking on the biggies. Sharaf Udheen who plays the rival journalist is really good too. Understated and somewhat bewildered by the declining journalistic standards suddenly expected of him.
Joy Mathew in a different avatar as the sneering ruthless boss delivers. So does Indrans as the upright, hard-nut-to-crack magistrate.
Making the hero of the film an out and out villain is actually a great idea. But somehow the character comes out less like a journalist and ends up being a mere cheap blackmailer, who seems to have nudes of virtually everyone.
Yet his bigotry is flawlessly portrayed. The caste chauvinism and the vulgarity in all of it is quite chilling and timely. Like I mentioned before, you will relate to every news angle they show you because it’s all around you.
The second half of Naradan slips more into a courtroom drama. Here the direction lags a bit with very predictable scenes. The film would have benefited from staying away from a few stereotypes like the villainous CP unendingly vaping, all the bad guys have booze and chicken on the table. In short, the poor are all good, the rich are all terrible…
A film with such a premise was waiting to be made. Our society is today precariously poised - many times seemingly on the verge of a civil war. The hand of soul-dead media houses in hyping majority sentiments for TRPs is very evident. And maybe shaming them by mainstreaming their antics will lead to more awareness among the masses. Or at least that’s the hope.
Naradan should have compelled us to think of what we are allowing. The business model of electronic media is not really a mutant version of capitalism: it’s pure capitalism – finding and exploiting resources from which profit can be extracted.
After having plundered the natural world, it has now turned to extracting and exploiting human beings and what’s inside our heads. And the great mystery is why we continue to allow it to do so. However, director Aashiq Abu’s film falls short of doing that. And by the end, from a roaring indictment of modern day media, it instead trickles down to the ego of one man and his trial.
Naradan inspite of its shortcomings is definitely worth a watch. There’s a fair bit to chuckle at, identify, relate and ponder on. There’s a refreshing contemporariness in approach, good music and some hard hitting facts. It’s a relevant film, even if it’s not as brilliant as it could have been.
(Sangita is a writer, active theatre person and deep-sea diving enthusiast you can connect with on Twitter at @sanginamby)
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