Nandanam (2002)
Balamani is the housemaid looking after Unni Amma. There are three more housemaids in the house but it is Balamani's duty to look after them too. Balamani is a devotee of Guruvayoorappan (Lord Krishna of Guruvayoor). But she could never visit the Guruvayoor temple, though her house is very near to the temple. Unni Amma's grandson Manu comes to spend a couple of weeks with Unni Amma before he goes to USA. Manu and Balamani fall in love but the whole family is against their union. Will Balamani's friend Guruvayoorappan (Lord Krishna of Guruvayoor) come to their help..?
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Reviews
Very very predictable, including the post credit scene !!!
Too much of everything
All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.
Each character in this movie — down to the smallest one — is an individual rather than a type, prone to spontaneous changes of mood and sometimes amusing outbursts of pettiness or ill humor.
I was never so fancied about Prithviraj until I watched this movie. Sure he is good looking, has his skills in place. But there was something missing! He had a really different personality in this movie and he did a wonderful job portraying this character of Manu. This actor sure has good talents and can effortlessly transform into different characters. Somehow he even looked handsome than ever! Must be that the beard actually makes him look better! Love, pain, sorrow, sacrifice all were played well by both Navya and Prithvi... I just had to begin with Prithvi as he totally changed my opinion of him with this movie.Navya without a doubt is a great actress and she did her part really well. I am a great fan of Kaviyoor Ponnamma and she adds her charm to the movie. Other actors like Innocent and Jagathi were awesome! Its a great movie power-packed with a good story/script, a good showcase of emotions and love, care, giving, sorrows, pain, sacrifices, etc. And yes, comedy too! And oh, did I miss the faith part!? Guess I did! hmmm looks like its already mentioned in the reviews by others...Oh the movie is very touchy!!! If only more Manu/s existed in this world!!! Sigh!!!
No one would have expected director Ranjith to come up with such a down to earth script.Ranjith who is popular(notorious?) for his action packed commercial movies(both as a director and as a writer)has this time taken a big deviation to make a film like 'Nandanam'.The film set in the premises of Guruvayoor temple tells the story of a servant girl Balamani(Navya Nair).Her routine life,her dreams etc.Others among the cast are the hero Prithviraj,Kaviyoor Ponnamma,Revati,etc.She is an ardent worshiper of Guruvayoorappan but for one reason or the other hasn't been able to go to the temple till then.Dialogues in the film are good especially her private conversations with a photo of Guruvayoorappan.The songs are good and apt for each situation.The film has a fair bit of fantasy too.The climax too is very good.(We doesn't see Malayalam movies with such great climaxes).So all in all Nanadanam is a great movie ;and it is worth a watch or more for good movie lovers.