Nivin Pauly on latest Malayalam film Njandukalude Nattil Oridavela and charting new territories

Nivin Pauly is thrilled with the response for his latest Malayalam film Njandukalude Nattil Oridavela, which loosely translates to ‘An Interval In The Land Of Crabs’. Directed by newcomer Althaf Salim, the film is a family drama and narrates the story of how a family comes together in the time of crisis. It’s the second time that Nivin has produced a film (his previous endeavour was Action Hero Biju), and he confesses that this was close to his heart.\

[caption id=“attachment_3448530” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] File image of Nivin Pauly[/caption]

“Njandukalude Nattil Oridavela is a family drama which is very realistic in its treatment of the characters. The humour too is quite realistic. I loved the sincerity in Althaf Salim’s story and what he was trying to do, and that’s the reason why I decided to produce the film as well,” Nivin says. 

Admittedly, he first heard the story of this film during the scripting stage of his blockbuster film Premam way back in 2015 and it was Premam’s director Alphonse Puthren who introduced him to Althaf.

Ask him what took him so long to make the film, Nivin says, “Back then, Althaf had a brief storyline in mind and he wanted time to complete the story. And after that, I got busy with my other projects. By the time Althaf was ready, I was amazed with the level of research and detailing that he came up with for the film. It’s great when you work with such passionate people. You know that you are going to be part of a wonderful journey and such films happen very rarely. And once a film is made, it’s going to be part of Malayalam cinema’s history. So, you might as well do a good job.” 

The film’s cast and crew had numerous people who had worked on Premam and it almost ended up being a reunion of sorts. However, Nivin insists that it was just a pure co-incidence since it was Althaf’s decision to go back to the same people just like he had approached Nivin.  

In the film, Nivin plays Kurien, a day-dreamer, who is based in London. One day, his mother, played by Shanti Krishna, insists that he come back home immediately, and this sudden phone call leads him to believe that his mother has fixed his wedding with someone. However, the film touches upon a very important topic - How a family deals with cancer. The title of the film too is perfect in that sense and critics too praised Althaf for handling the subject in an interesting manner.

“One of the things that I loved the most about the script was how different the relationships between the characters were. Most commercial films have a lot of cinematic characterisations for artistes. We see the lead actor beginning his journey as an underdog and gradually within six to 12 months, he transforms into a hero. However, that’s rarely the case in real life. We don’t change as much. And Althaf captured it quite well in the film. That’s what I meant when I said everything is so real about this film. There’s no special consideration for the hero or heroine,” he adds. 

[caption id=“attachment_4006207” align=“alignnone” width=“825”] Nivin Pauly. Twitter[/caption]

Over the past few years, Nivin has played a wide range of roles and he is so natural that it becomes hard to draw a line between where his real persona ends and where the reel character takes over. And his performances in films post Premam are proof enough that he doesn’t want to get trapped in a particular image. In 2015, he became a sensation among the youth following the phenomenal success of Premam; however, he was clear that he doesn’t want to repeat the act one more time. 

“I was confused about what to do next after that film and I really wanted to get out of the Premam fever.  That’s when I decided to do Action Hero Biju, which was a very realistic take on a policeman’s life. When you think of a film about a police officer, your mind is automatically tuned to imagine a Dabangg where everything is exaggerated but Action Hero Biju was in a very different space altogether. Jacobinte Swargarajyam too was a very different project and I fell in love with the story when I first heard it from Vineeth Sreenivasan. Initially, he wanted to act and also direct the film. A week later, I called him back asking him to consider me to play the lead role. It’s the only time where I had to literally convince the director (Srinivasan) to cast me in the lead role. He finally agreed to my request after six months (laughs),” Nivin says, adding, “I want good roles and well-written scripts. I want to be part of good cinema. I don’t know if I am greedy as an actor, but I can’t compromise on the quality of cinema.” 

Of late, there has been an explosion of great talent in Malayalam cinema. Right from the stories that filmmakers are keen on telling to the roles that the lead actors have donned, everything has changed to the extent that the industry has in turn inspired others to take a cue. Ask Nivin if it gets really tough to say ‘no’ to a good script owing to lack of time, the actor agrees saying, “Sometimes, it is. Once you listen to the story, you get a hunch whether it’ll work or not. You want to do what’s best for that time - if it’s a festival time, then you end up doing a family drama instead of an experimental film. If I really like a script, then I have to consider who’s backing the film because even if you make a great film, if the distribution isn’t good, then there’s no point. But then, there’s only so much you can work on at any given point of time.”

Currently, he’s filming for his upcoming Tamil film Richie, directed by Gautham Ramachandran, and then, there is Shyamaprasad’s Hey Jude, and Dhyan Sreenivasan’s Love Action Drama in the making. While the actor is juggling between Malayalam and Tamil cinema effortlessly, he is clear that he does not want to be part of multilingual films.

“I like making films in one language. I have nothing against bilinguals or multilinguals, but you have to understand that not every film can be made in multiple languages. I was part of Neram which was a Tamil-Malayalam film and the script was apt for both the languages. Besides, it’s a very stressful job for both the director and the actor to make a film which everyone can relate to,” Nivin signs off.