Nithyaharitha Nayakan movie review: Lover boy gone astray

Cast: Vishnu Unnikrishnan, Dharmajan Bolgatty, Raveena Ravi, Malavika Nair, Basil Joseph
Director: A.R. Binuraj

Nithyaharitha Nayakan is all about crying ‘wolf, wolf’ multiple times, till the audience themselves try to find a wolf and kill it if it can spare them the sheer boredom and predictability. The film moves through Vishnu’s character Sajimon, who keeps on falling in love and that too, love at first sight, multiple times at different periods in his life. The film might as well have been named Nithyaharitha Kamukan than Nayakan.  Incidentally, Nithya is the name of the first girl he falls in love with and Haritha is the name of his wife (his last love, we hope).

The film starts off with Sajimon and Haritha’s wedding night where he commits an unpardonable sin that goes against the unwritten rules of marital life. Sajimon spills all the beans about his past relationships, including his first one when he was a schoolboy. He goes to college and falls in love yet again, he is sent off to another city where he falls in love yet again, and finally he becomes attracted to another religion because, you guessed it, he falls in love with a girl of that sect. Yes, to be fair, one can justify all his romantic escapades saying that he has faced love failures numerous times and we have been taught to try, try and try till we succeed.  

The talents of National Award winner Indrans and versatile actor Manju Pillai seem to have been wasted as Sajimon’s parents, though they have acted out their parts perfectly. The supporting actors have all done their best but too many cooks, err actors seem to have spoiled the broth. The unwanted song and dance sequences with outdated cardboard cutouts of flowers and hundreds of junior artistes crowding the frame do nothing for the film. The cinematography is decent and attention to detail in setting up the required props to provide authenticity to a scene is there.  It is towards the end that the director wakes up to the fact that a storyline is missing and makes a last ditch effort to add a social message, which is too little too late.  

Coming to the positives, the film evokes a certain nostalgia if you had a school crush. Those stolen looks, that wave of longing, those ‘coincidental’ meetings, the friends who aid and abet the heartbreaks made better over bottles of liquor, not to mention coloured ice candies or honey candies that were a school time favourite. Vishnu has managed to morph into the many changes that have been demanded from him- like the schoolboy, the passionate-to-the-cause college leader with fire in his communist veins and the bible carrying religious man. The first half did manage to elicit some laughs, but the second half meanders.