‘Jan-E-Man’ Malayalam movie review: Hits all the right notes with its inventive script

When a tightrope walker manages to walk throughout comfortably, regardless of the rope being not really easy to barter, one can’t however rise up and add. Particularly so, when it’s a first-timer, which is the case with Chidambaram, who makes his filmmaking debut with Jan-E-Man, pulling off an admirable feat of balancing.

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Most frequently, filmmakers wrestle to search out the appropriate stability when there are two or three conflicting emotional tones within the narrative. Right here, the script is written in such a means that the tonal shifts from the humorous to the morbid takes place in virtually each different scene, that would appear a lot simpler to lose that stability. But, the makers, in addition to the actors, not solely handle to get it excellent, in addition they take the viewers alongside on a roller-coaster journey of emotional highs and lows, which come relentlessly one after the opposite.

On the centre of all of it is Joymon (Basil Joseph), working as a nurse in Canada. Away from family and friends, none of whom have endurance to take heed to him throughout his frequent cellphone calls, loneliness is gnawing at him. Nearing his breaking level, Joymon decides to make a journey again to Kerala to have fun him thirtieth birthday. Pressured to assist him are his outdated pals, Faisal Khan (Ganapathi), who’s organising the entire occasion, and Sampath (Arjun Ashokan), who reluctantly agrees for the occasion to be organised at his residence.

However, the occasion that Joymon has deliberate is way past their creativeness, Complicating issues additional is a loss of life within the neighbouring home. With Joymon in no temper to cancel his party, or scale down the celebrations, the stage is about for a collision course.

Whereas the script by Chidambaram, Ganapathi and Sapnesh Varachal progresses by alternating between the contrasting moods in each the homes, there’s extra to it than this construction. Numerous characters, and facet tales, are packed into the narrative seamlessly, with out the viewers by no means dropping join from the central thread. For example, there’s the occasion supervisor — employed by Joymon for his birthday — who finally ends up with extra enterprise after easily taking on the preparations in the home the place the loss of life has occurred. Then there’s a goon’s bodyguard, with a heavy Palakkad accent, who sees hazard for his grasp, the place none exists, and a well-liked serial actor who creates fairly a stir in each homes… all of it resulting in a lot hilarity.

Although it virtually seems as an apart, the subject of psychological well being can be on the core of the narrative. The script easily transitions into that dialogue between two characters going through virtually comparable points, dealing with it in numerous methods, and zooms out of them simply as easily. The delicate portrayal of their points doesn’t stick out as an consciousness class. The scene is among the many highs that the movie manages to hit, to not neglect a wonderfully written fireworks scene, and a ‘Superman tribute’.

Jan-E-man, with its ingenious script and earnest performances, hits all the appropriate notes.