Neram

Story: Mathew loses his job after his company declares bankruptcy. It is a decisive day since he has to pay his debts to a merciless moneylender and on the same day unforeseen challenges crop up before him.

Review: Neram has a romantic charm, an exciting trait which infuses it with a good measure of likability. The plot works at a very basic level; a crisis-ridden character needs to accomplish a lot of tasks in very little time.

Having created a promising plot to work on, Alphonse Putharan starts his work judiciously with a chosen set of colour tones and a group of charming, young actors who exhibit immense verve in enacting their characters. The setting is Chennai; a dry, dirty and steaming metro. Working with a diligent cinematographer Anand C Chandran, Alphonse places his characters mostly in inhospitable spots; a police officer peacefully listens to music in a cluttered cell which he has made his office; a pretty girl finds herself tied up and bundled into the rear of the car, two crooks plot prosperous schemes in a dark, dingy building; all these scenes intentionally crafted to lend the narrative its humorously ludicrous quality.

Even some of the characters are left with occasional flourishes of absurd humour; a cop is bashful at uttering his own name; a ridiculously childish moniker, a doctor checks the pulse of a wrapped-up body in front of mortuary, a ruthless thug flares up at his flunkeys for buying a touch phone at Rs 10,000 because he can’t find the most essential ‘buttons’ in it.

A pervading dull tonality makes the characters humane, settings real and goes well with the riveting nature of the narrative. There are quite a few charismatic performances. Nivin Pauly excels with a sense of natural realism which he adds to his character Mathew as he passes through moments of shame, helplessness and an eventual glory which he earns after a toil that combines laughter with bitterness. Nazriya effectively coats her lovable childish warmth with a boldness that makes for engaging screen-presence along with Nivin.

Neram is not one of those fault-free thrillers tinged with a thick coat of humour. There are times when the narrative probes for a stimulus which Alphonse feeds definitely but not without consuming ample time; a luxury he can afford since he has a nicely conceived plot with a brilliant set of characters.