Nunakkuzhi Review - Decent Dark Comedy!

Ashwin Ram

Nunakkuzhi is a dark comedy starring Basil Joseph and Grace Antony in the lead roles. The film is directed by Drishyam fame Jeethu Joseph.

Premise:

In an IT raid, the officers take control over Basil Joseph’s personal laptop which has a private video of his wife. In an attempt to grab it back, he wrongly gets accused in certain crime scenes. How he comes out of all the trouble and saves his day forms the remaining story.

Writing/ Direction:

A dark comedy demands fresh ideas, in that case the film gets the basics right. There are multiple plots that connect with each other in different places. The links are mostly convincing, but the scenes are so lengthy and just keep delaying to proceed forward to the high-point. The approach is realistic, hence the leisure pace, but the film wastes so much time on Manoj Jayan’s track. The reason why Siddique’s character hangs out with him overnight is also not convincing. Their portions are weak and have zero progression until a point gets better only after it collides with the core subject. On the other hand, Basil Joseph and Grace Antony’s track flows steadily with situations being frequently funny. The film handles the thrill factor on a mild note, so there is barely any tension. However things end well by giving proper closures by closing all the brackets that were opened all through the story. Lame to give a lead for a second part when everything has settled smoothly.

Performances:

Energetic performance from Basil Joseph and he makes his scenes very lively. He carried the show-off rich person attitude well. Grace Antony played her hyper character naturally who is constantly confused about something. Amidst the bunch of supporting artists, Baiju Santhosh and the cops alongside him scored big time with respect to humour. And the other men have their share of hits and misses.

Technicalities:

Fun songs with lyrics that add up to the situations neatly. The sounding is peculiar which is apt for the genre and elevates the black humour sequences. Cameraman has provided what is best for the film, especially good lighting for the night shots. Some parts could have been briefly conveyed without being sluggish, yet the crisp runtime is an advantage.

Bottomline

Interesting pieces of writing whenever the script climbs to the next step, the organic humour is the key engaging factor. But the flow gets paused at several places with many dry patches.

Rating - 2.75/ 5