Porattu Nadakam review: A social satire critical of all political parties lacks a strong script

Political satires usually work when it dares to speak about a particular party with the filmmaker taking a stand on an issue or ideology.

In Malayalam, some of the exemplary political satires include KG George’s Panchavadi Palam (1984) and Sandesham (1994).

Saiju Kurup’s new movie Porattu Nadakam is a new addition to the political satire genre that is based on the present political scenario in Kerala.

The movie directed by debutant Noushad Saffron deals with many elements evident in our society.

Synopsis

Porattu Nadakam refers to a play that is enacted by oppressed caste people and is presented with songs and interactions. Interestingly the movie starts with this play and introduces Gopalapura, a village on the border of Kerala and Karnataka in Kasaragod district.

All the political parties have their base in Gopalapura. The right-wing party called Sena is against the slaughter of cows as they worship cows.

Then we are introduced to the left party which gets a cliched pattern of leaders who speak about communism but are afraid of God. The Congress party is again shown as those leaders who don’t have a connection with the common people.

However, these portrayals are not new and have been repeated in various films.

The central character of this story is Abu (Saiju Kurup), a person with responsibilities and debts. He has a family to look after and he is finding it difficult to repay his debts.

Abu’s friends Murukan (Dharmajan Bolgatty) and Thambayi (Sunil Sugatha) play key roles in the movie.

Thambayi is also at the centre of the conflict, as he helps Abu by giving his daughter-in-law’s gold to help him, which goes missing creating tension.

While the crux of Porattu Nadakam is about how Abu overcomes his situation, there are a lot more plotlines going haywire. The film ends up criticising all, with neither giving a solution nor giving the audience something to ponder about.

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Scattered ideas

Porattu Nadakam has a lot going on, but there is no coherence in the script. In simple terms, the film bites more than it can chew.

It speaks about the political nexus between the three major political parties and how they pose a threat to common people voting them to power.

On one hand, it speaks of the lynchings in the name of beef, and other right-wing propaganda, on the other hand, the film also speaks of the recent co-operative band scam that rocked Kerala. However, incorporating all these ideas didn’t work as there are many disjointed areas in the film.

There are many subplots, like the one of Murukan’s character, which could have been written better. Porattu Nadakam is similar to a documentary, which shows different happenings in the village, but lacks the drama to hold it together.

The dialogues by the lead actors also could have been better with the usage of the local dialect of the area.

The songs by Rahul Raj are definitely a plus for the movie. The visualisation of the songs and other scenes has also worked for the movie.

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Performances

Saiju Kurup as Abu was perfect for the role. The issues faced by Abu and the body language and mannerisms of a person dealing with problems were convincing.

Dharmajan had a different role in a comedy avatar and later as a tragic character.

Shukur who plays the role of Gopal Ji, the right-wing leader gave a decent performance. Meanwhile, Sunil Sugatha as Thambayi also did his role well.

The women characters didn’t have well-written roles. However, Chithra Nair as the wife of Dharmajan’s character got a good role, and in the end, she also performed the “Porattu Nadakam”.

Final take

Porattu Nadakam is a political satire that deals with numerous issues. If the movie could have stuck on to one particular issue and spoken about that, it would have been more entertaining.

(Views expressed here are personal.)