Naradan movie review: Tovino Thomas, Anna Ben land a slap on the face of India’s fake-news-peddling media

Language: Malayalam Chandraprakash’s superpower is his lack of scruples. Fresh from the success of the superhero saga _Minnal Murali_ , Tovino Thomas plays this news anchor who manufactures ‘facts’, polices society’s morality, humiliates guests on air, and substitutes journalism with high-decibel rants in director Aashiq Abu’s latest film, Naradan.   It’s a familiar picture, but writer Unni R. does not take the easy path of fashioning the leading man as a naturally demonic force whose TV persona mirrors his off-screen personality. Instead, he paints him as a man who is not as poised as his on-air demeanour suggests. Chandraprakash (Tovino) is a high-profile Malayalam news anchor who comes under pressure to increase his channel’s TRPs when a small local channel suddenly begins attracting attention. His confidence crashes after a professional setback, following which he re-builds himself. Through a close examination of Chandraprakash’s journey to becoming CP, a peddler of fake news, Naradan suggests that he did not actually invent a whole new creature to further his career. The callousness already existed within him. He simply dredged it up, and added a mask of aggression to cope with his own uncertainty about his self-worth.   Chandraprakash does not just represent the media, he is a metaphor for the ecosystem of hate that has emerged around those who camouflage their insecurities with animosity towards whoever they choose – “an individual, a community, an institution,” to quote CP. In the American film Nightcrawler (2014), directed by Dan Gilroy, Jake Gyllenhaal plays a reptilian freelancer who starts interfering with crime scenes to make them more saleable to a TV station. His motivation was wealth and power. Chandraprakash’s motivations include a desire to conquer his own self-doubt. The writing of this character is stupendous.

When Tovino in Naradan purposefully metamorphoses into the restless, eccentric, hyper yet simultaneously ice cold CP, he becomes emotionally and physically unrecognisable from most characters he has played so far. His performance as CP is a tour de force.  

What is missing from Naradan is a scrutiny of the socio-political environment that facilitates the emergence of the likes of CP.   [caption id=“attachment_10429561” align=“alignnone” width=“640”] Tovino Thomas in Naradan[/caption] The film’s portrayal of newsrooms and studios is remarkably authentic. But on a couple of occasions,  Naradan slips up by depicting stupidity and incompetence as innocent, genuine journalism. For one, an experienced journalist who’s aware of the cut-throat environment in which he operates is hardly likely to promo a highly sensitive interview of a public figure much before that interview has been recorded. Yet CP’s rival, Pradeep John (Sharafudheen), and his boss (Joy Mathew) do precisely that in Naradan.   The film’s ending too is unrealistically optimistic, and allows a character to deliver a speech where none was necessary. That scene sticks out for its uncharacteristic spoonfeeding – we really did not need that low-angle shot of Judge Chothi in slow motion or a copy of the Constitution coming into focus to underline a point already made so emphatically and well. The inclusion of caste in the narrative, on the other hand, is organic and beautiful. And the representation of religious minorities here goes beyond what is already a heartening aspect of most Malayalam cinema. Naradan says a lot without saying a word by featuring a Muslim woman lawyer (Anna Ben) who chews up the opposition in the courtroom, and an activist Christian priest (Jaffer Idukki) of the sort who almost never finds mention in Indian cinema.     [caption id=“attachment_10429611” align=“alignnone” width=“640”]  Anna Ben in Naradan[/caption] In this and so much else, Naradan is hushed and subtle, though perhaps never more so than with this sentence from the lecture CP gives his team: “The lotus of our success will bloom in (the dirt we dig up on people).” Words mean more than their literal dictionary definitions depending on the context in which they are uttered.   The overwhelming quietness of the narrative makes every scene of CP on air even more jarring than it otherwise might have been. Naradan’s background score is so gentle that it almost seems to merge with the breath and heartbeat of the characters in the story.     Although this is very much Tovino’s film, once Anna Ben ( _Kumbalangi Nights_ , _Helen_ , _Sara’s_ ) enters the courtroom, she makes Naradan as much her own as it is his. She also illustrates – as Indrans does, playing Judge Chothi – that you need not be physically large to fill up a screen.  Rajesh Madhavan, who is cast against type here, is memorable as CP’s colleague. And Renji Panicker makes lawyer Govinda Menon stand out with a fleeting, nuanced allusion to the character’s casteist arrogance and frustration in his body language. Malayalam cinema has long been lauded for its quick, courageous reactions to current events. Aashiq Abu’s own _Virus_ (2019) was a gripping procedural on how Kerala curtailed a Nipah outbreak just the previous year. Naradan lands a slap on the face of India’s sensationalist contemporary news anchors. It is an enormously significant, thought-provoking film.   This review was first published when Naradan released in cinemas on 4 March. It is now being republished in view of its streaming premiere on Amazon Prime Video India on 8 April. Rating: ***1/2

Anna M.M. Vetticad is an award-winning journalist and author of The Adventures of an Intrepid Film Critic. She specialises in the intersection of cinema with feminist and other socio-political concerns. Twitter: @annavetticad, Instagram: @annammvetticad, Facebook: AnnaMMVetticadOfficial  Read all the  Latest News ,  Trending News ,  Cricket News ,  Bollywood News ,  India News  and  Entertainment News  here. Follow us on  Facebook,  Twitter and  Instagram.