A man from the present tries to narrate the past. The narrative features the urban space into which an old ancestral home is fitted in, and there begins the interplay of past and present. We have seen this phenomena a few other times, and what sticks the past and present together is a link; a sympathetic thread, a familiar or identifiable situation. In 'Njan', the journey from present to past is etched well on camera, but what's missed from the canvas is the link.
Without much ado, the opening scene leads us to surmise that Ravi Chandrashekharan (Dulquer Salmaan), an employee at an IT solutions company is an 'argumentative' blogger. He substantiates with his arguments how he isn't a controversial blogger to the police, who had received complaints to check on him for his tongue-in-cheek write-ups. He writes under the pseudonym Kottoor, inspired by the life and works of a legendary figure, KTN Kottoor. Cut scene to a group of drama enthusiasts, also Dulquer's friends, who unanimously decide to stage a drama on the life of KTN Kottoor. They are characters from the 'present' who become people from the past (much like a 'Rang De Basanti' scenario).
Director Ranjith's tryst with the novels of writer T. P. Rajeevan extends from 'Palerimanikyam' to 'Njan', which is an adaptation of his notable work, 'KTN Kottoor: Ezhuthum Jeevithavum'.
As Ravi states early on, this is the story of the defeated, and so it is. The story is placed in pre-independent India, and the political chaos of the time is detailed; the righteous Congress and the start of the Communist wave. The tale, much like a period drama, moves slowly.
The life of the protagonist, KTN aka Narayanan, starts with his young days; he loses his mother early on, and soon his father as well, who is a staunch Congressman. We skip past his adolescence, and young Narayanan (Dulquer Salmaan) turns out to be a Congressman as well. His endeavours to form a camaraderie of sorts and make an impact is evident, but his personal space is brought into the frames so much, that a complete shift takes place. This shift isn't so obvious since there is a continuity maintained, at least in his interactions with the other characters, however, it does displace the focal point of the story.
A lot comes to mind from various other commendable cinema (Hariharan's 'Parinayam' for instance) where an upper caste idealist tries to talk for the subalterns. While 'Parinayam' penned by M.T. Vasudevan Nair dealt with some serious social issues, 'Njan' focuses more on the concept of 'collective self-esteem' and a self-interrogation of sorts after the man, who was lauded as a highly accomplished mind and a literati, loses his motive and drive, as he gets more and more embroiled in his life.
While watching the movie, it strikes you that you're watching an ordinary man; a man who had highly progressive ideas, but knew nothing much of its plausibility, and so his voice was submerged by others. And he proved to be a poor companion for the ideas he carried along, as when the times came, he couldn't stand up for himself, nor for his ideas. It wasn't a remarkable life from any angle; maybe that was what director Ranjith wanted to portray. Being a man of a higher caste privileged him to bed many women, and those are deemed as mere 'flaws'. It goes without saying how a woman in the movie is treated for doing the same.
Amidst the assorted cast, Dulquer (though hard to picture him as a period film protagonist) does his part well. Renji Panicker is quite effective as Valiyanchery Kutty Shankaran, the nemesis of Dulquer. His fine-tuned performance is commendable. In a single outstanding scene, where she comes to take one last look at Narayanan's father in the presence of his relatives mourning his death, Sajitha Madathil asserts herself as an actor of calibre and presence.
Other than the fact that Ravi, through his blogs, raised social issues, there wasn't another instance where an empathetical stance could be taken. While the scenes are inter-linked, the purport of the movie is what seems to be at a loss, especially after a brief unrelated quote of 'do you know what the womenfolk of the house go through' with no follow up.
By the time the story concludes, you start to regard KTN as a less than average human being. If that was the purpose, it was well served.
This isn't a movie you can relax and watch. It doesn't quite fit into the genre of the hero braving the odds and making a difference among people. At the most, it expounds on the idea that everybody has a dark side, a shade unrecognizable to even themselves. Even amidst staunch idealisms, there are gray areas, untamed thoughts on uneven trajectories. A lot of half-baked ideas loom large. For instance, what becomes of the light tug-of-war between Narayanan and the character played by Ranji Panickar? Why did Narayanan succumb so easily; are we to surmise that even the brightest of minds can be unsteady and insecure, and leave it at that? Why is the language used so archaic, and was Hindi as a language taught in remote villages in Kerala at the time?
Much like how Nakulan, childhood friend of Narayanan retorts, "What is freedom?" when asked "Will India achieve freedom", a poignant line in the movie, director Ranjith can maybe rethink concepts of success and failure, in terms of whatever the fate of this movie is.
Rating: 2.5/5