Going overboard with its element of confusion, Jeethu Joseph’s Nunakuzhi is still fun

With a title track reminiscent of the Ramji Rao song ‘Kalikkalam’ and the opening scene showing two middle-aged men with impassive faces riding on a motorbike, Nunakuzhi begins with an air of mystery, setting the tone for the comedy of errors that is to follow. Characters, and there are plenty of them making their entrances at different stages, pour in, allowing themselves a brief introduction before plunging into the massive confusion the script is all about. Director Jeethu Joseph’s new film, a world away from his Drishyams and Nerus, is well-paced, has enough material to produce a few laughs, and while going a little overboard with its element of confusion, works as quick entertainment.

By now one can acknowledge that Basil Joseph is simply a terrific actor, instead of pronouncing that such and such a role was tailor-made for him. When he plays his unintentionally funny, overly hasty, laughing-aloud simple-man characters, you leave the theatre thinking you can’t imagine anyone else so apt for the role. But the versatility of these characters – vile as in Jaya Hey and sensitive as in Falimy – tells you how flexible the actor is, his trademark wit often a bonus. In Nunakuzhi, he comes across as an immature young man taking charge of the companies his late father had run, but without the least interest in them. In a few minutes, he establishes himself as a spoiled rich brat lusting after his new wife (Nikhila Vimal), enjoying their private video in his office.

In parallel, you watch the story of Reshmita (Grace Antony) unfold, humiliated in a family court during a divorce proceeding, not waiting long to exact her revenge, and you realise this is a person who lets her emotions guide her actions. Grace, who has just proven her taste for humour in Nagendran’s Honeymoons, hops effortlessly between the seriousness of her situation and the annoyance of the mix-ups she becomes part of. Through all of this, Jeethu Joseph never lets go of the light-hearted treatment of the script, written by KR Krishnakumar, even as they broach serious subjects such as divorce and murder.

Of course there is ‘murder’ in a Jeethu Joseph film. But unlike his whodunits or court dramas, the comedy in Nunakuzhi overshadows the thriller part of the story. It’d seem that the script borrowed a leaf out of Priyadarshan comedies, with its numerous sub-plots. If Saiju Kurup’s role as a flirty and lying dentist is too short, there is an unexpectedly lengthy role for Siddique, who is introduced as a no-nonsense Income Tax official. Siddique’s later combination with Manoj K Jayan, Binu Pappu, and Althaf Salim is not just a comic sub-plot but a track that intrinsically merges into the main storyline. Another witty addition is the policemen gang led by Baiju Santhosh, again integral to the plot.

Krishnakumar, the scriptwriter, appears really skilled in juggling multiple stories and keeping them all connected, while not losing the thread of humour they are sewn with. The humour is not often laugh-out funny, but there are enough offhand one-liners to lighten the spirit, while you are focussing on all the twists and turns in the two-hour film. No role is wasted, no one seems like an ill-fitting extra. Aju Varghese, Swasika, Lena, Dinesh Prabhakar all flash by, but not without leaving enough to remember their roles.

At the end of it all, as you shake your head to clear the air, you think that a better title than Nunakuzhi – meaning dimple, but also colloquially the sign of a liar – would have been ‘Alangolam’, meaning, simply, confusion.

Disclaimer: This review was not paid for or commissioned by anyone associated with the film. Neither TNM nor any of its reviewers have any sort of business relationship with the producers or any other members of its cast and crew.