Nanpakal Nerathu Mayakkam

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Nanpakal Nerathu Mayakkam
Nanpakal Nerathu Mayakkam Title.jpeg
Theatrical release poster
Directed by Lijo Jose Pellissery
Screenplay by S. Hareesh
Story byLijo Jose Pellissery
Produced byMammootty
Starring Mammootty
Ramya Pandian
Ashokan
Cinematography Theni Eswar
Edited byDeepu S. Joseph
Production
companies
Mammootty Kampany
Amen Movie Monastery (co-producer)
Distributed by Wayfarer Films
Release dates
  • 12 December 2022 (2022-12-12)(IFFK)
  • 19 January 2023 (2023-01-19)(India)
Running time
104 minutes [1]
CountryIndia
LanguagesMalayalam
Tamil

Nanpakal Nerathu Mayakkam (English: Like An Afternoon Dream) [2] is a 2022 Indian Malayalam-Tamil bilingual drama film directed by Lijo Jose Pellissery and written by S. Hareesh. [3] It is produced by Mammootty Kampany & Amen Movie Monastery. The film stars Mammootty, Ramya Suvi, Ramya Pandian and Ashokan. [4] [5]

Contents

Nanpakal Nerathu Mayakkam was released theatrically on 19 January 2023 and received critical acclaim. At the 53rd Kerala State Film Awards, it won two awards, including Best Film (Pellissery and George Sebastian) and Best Actor (Mammootty). [6]

Plot

After visiting Velankanni, Tamil Nadu, a group of Malayali tourists are returning to Kerala. While the other tourists are asleep, tour leader James stops the bus at a remote village. He takes a stroll around the place, and then enters a house and starts acting like a member of the family. His blind mother appears to recognize him, based on his voice and mannerisms. He behaves like a Tamilian and speaks in Tamil. Not finding James, the other tourists come looking for him. His familiarity with the community confuses everyone who travelled with him, as well as the villagers. Eventually the people realize he has taken on the character, mannerisms and language of Sundaram, a member of the family who had disappeared two years earlier. The family of Sundaram starts to believe that he has been reincarnated. But James progressively gets confused when people don't accept him as Sundaram. He doesn't recognize the changes in the village, such as the new temple that had not been built when Sundaram went missing. He also chances to see his face mirrored for the first time, when he visits the barber, which shocks him into reality. James' real family and friends plot to sedate him in order to get him back to Kerala, and get him help for his presumed mental disorder. Whether they succeed in drugging him on not is left to the imagination. However after falling asleep, James regains his true identity and willingly goes with them to board the bus. The ending is open to interpretation. The character named Sundaram and the entire escapade could merely be a dream that James had on the bus all the while.

Cast

Production

On 7 November 2021, Lijo Jose Pellissery officially announced the film by sharing the title through social media. Nanpakal Nerathu Mayakkam is the first-time collaboration between Mammootty and Lijo Jose Pellissery. The film was produced by Mammootty's newly launched production house Mammootty Kampany. [4] [7]

On 7 November 2021, principal photography took place in the village of Manjanaickenpatti, near Palani, Tamil Nadu. [4] Filming was wrapped up on 7 December 2021. [8]

Release

The movie premiered at 27th International Film Festival of Kerala(IIFK) on 12 December 2022. [8] The film received positive reviews and huge demand for world premiere. Audience praised both Mammootty and Lijo Jose Pellissery. [7]

On 19 January 2023, Nanpakal Nerathu Mayakkam went into general release on theatres. [9]

Home media

The streaming rights of the film were sold to Netflix. It released on 23 February 2023. [10]

Reception

Nanpakal Nerathu Mayakam received mostly positive reviews from critics. [11] [12]

Baradwaj Rangan, reviewing for Galatta Plus, described the film as "magical" and "an instant classic" and continued that "to experience a film like this – at once muddled and filled with clarity – is to feel transcendentally alive." [13] Simon Abrams from RogerEbert.com gave the film 3.5 out of 4 and wrote that "Nanpakal Nerathu Mayakkam feels like a deep and abidingly strange trip to Pellissery’s memory palace" and that "Pellissery confirms his prominence among a new wave of Malayalam-speaking Indian filmmakers." [14]

Anna M. M. Vetticad of Firstpost gave the film 3 out of 5 and wrote "Apart from the music and sound design, the highlight of Nanpakal Nerathu Mayakkam is its immersive central performance...the thespian does not give either James or Sundaram any quirks, yet masterfully conveys their divergent personalities leaving us in no doubt as to who is who and when. This team-up with Lijo confirms that Mammootty is steering his career into a whole new experimental phase, embracing not just the sort of middle-of-the-road, slice-of-life ventures that have endeared Malayalam cinema to a pan-India audience, but also entering an unapologetically philosophical arena." [15]

Prem Udayabhanu of Onmanorama reviewed the film as post-siesta drama a lofty cinematic experience and wrote "The orchestrated chaos we see in Jallikattu or Churuli is amiss. But through the interplay of hallucination and trance Lijo’s scriptwriter S Harish infuses into Mammotty’s character, the master craftsman pulls the actor and the audience to a lofty plain of cinematic excellence. We cannot but embrace this irrational reel exuberance." [16]

Analysing the movie, Sajesh Mohan of Onmanorama wrote In ‘Nanpakal Nerathu Mayakkam’, Lijo Jose Pellissery must have asked cinematographer Theni Eswar to observe the actors like a master of mindfulness. For that's what his camera does. The shots are static yet the frames are dynamic and once the film enters Sundaram’s village through James's siesta dream, the shots acquire an aura that makes it resemble the visualisations of a Tao master. In lieu of adding haze and glow or grading the dream sequence differently, Theni Eswar achieves a differentiation relying on the aesthetic method of frames within a frame. [17]

Manoj Kumar R. of The Indian Express rated the film 3.5 out of 5 and wrote "The visuals are almost meditative. Every frame tells more than one story." [18]

Accolades

YearAward/FestivalCategoryRecipient
2022 International Film Festival of Kerala The Silver Crow Pheasant Award (Rajatha Chakoram) [19] [20] Nanpakal Nerathu Mayakkam - Lijo Jose Pellissery
Padmarajan Award Best Director [21] Lijo Jose Pellissery
2023 53rd Kerala State Film Awards [6] Best Film Lijo Jose Pellissery
George Sebastian (as producer)
Best Actor Mammootty

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References

  1. ↑ "Nanpakal Nerathu Mayakkam". British Board of Film Classification . Retrieved 29 January 2023.
  2. ↑ C-DIT. "Nanpakal Nerathu Mayakkam | International Competitions". www.iffk.in. Retrieved 19 January 2023.
  3. ↑ "Nanpakal Nerathu Mayakkam OTT release date and time!". STAGE SCREENing. Retrieved 19 February 2023.
  4. 1 2 3 "Mammootty-Lijo film titled 'Nanpakal Nerathu Mayakkam'". The New Indian Express . Retrieved 29 November 2021.
  5. ↑ "Malayalam Star Mammootty Starts Shooting for Lijo Jose Pellissery's Film in Palani". News18. Retrieved 29 November 2021.
  6. 1 2 "53rd Kerala State Film Awards: Kerala State Film Awards Updates". One India . Archived from the original on 22 July 2023. Retrieved 21 July 2023.
  7. 1 2 "Mammootty-Lijo Jose Pellissery's film gets a serene, hypnotic teaser". The New Indian Express. Retrieved 23 March 2022.
  8. 1 2 "Mammootty completes shooting for Nanpakal Nerathu Mayakkam". newindianexpress.com. 7 December 2021.
  9. ↑ "Mammootty starrer 'Nanpakal Nerathu Mayakkam' gets a release date". The Times of India. Retrieved 19 January 2023.
  10. ↑ "Nanpakal Nerathu Mayakkam on OTT: Mammootty-starrer bowls over audience on Twitter after it drops on Netflix". OTT Play. 23 February 2023. Retrieved 23 February 2023.
  11. ↑ "മമ്മൂട്ടിയുടെ മാന്ത്രികനടനം; വിസ്മയമൊരുക്കി നൻപകൽ; പ്രേക്ഷക പ്രതികരണം". ManoramaOnline (in Malayalam). Retrieved 19 January 2023.
  12. ↑ "മമ്മൂട്ടിയുടെ പരകായപ്രവേശം, 'സുന്ദര'മായൊരു പകൽസ്വപ്നം | Nanpakal Nerathu Mayakkam Review". Mathrubhumi. 19 January 2023. Retrieved 19 January 2023.
  13. ↑ Rangan, Bharadwaj. "Nanpakal Nerathu Mayakkam Movie Review By Baradwaj Rangan". YouTube.
  14. ↑ Abrams, Simon. "Review - Nanpakal Nerathu Mayakkam". Rogerebert.com.
  15. ↑ "Nanpakal Nerathu Mayakkam movie review: Mammootty and LJP shoulder a whimsical tale of re-awakenings". Firstpost. 19 January 2023. Retrieved 19 January 2023.
  16. ↑ "Lijo's 'Nanpakal' review: Post-siesta drama a lofty cinematic experience". OnManorama. Retrieved 19 January 2023.
  17. ↑ "Analysing Lijo Jose Pellissery's static shots and Mammootty's siesta in 'Nanpakal Nerathu Mayakkam'". OnManorama. Retrieved 31 January 2023.
  18. ↑ "Nanpakal Nerathu Mayakkam movie review: Mammootty's meditation on universality of human nature". The Indian Express. 19 January 2023. Retrieved 19 January 2023.
  19. ↑ "27th IFFK winners list: Utama, Ariyippu win big; Mammootty's Nanpakal Nerathu Mayakkam tops audience poll". The Indian Express. 16 December 2022. Retrieved 19 January 2023.
  20. ↑ "'Nanpakal Nerathu Mayakkam' screening row: Ranjith booed at IFFK closing ceremony". OnManorama. Retrieved 19 January 2023.
  21. ↑ "എം.മുകുന്ദനും വി.ജെ ജെയിംസിനും പത്മരാജൻ സാഹിത്യ പുരസ്‌കാരം; ചലച്ചിത്ര പുരസ്‌കാരം ലിജോ ജോസ് പെല്ലിശ്ശേരിക്കും ശ്രുതി ശരണ്യത്തിനും". DC Books (in Malayalam). 22 May 2023. Retrieved 28 May 2023.
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