Official Thread Njan Marykutty - Jayasurya - Ranjith Sankar* opens to excellent reviews*

Jayettan

 

Jayasurya is an actor who is known for his different role selection and versatile acting. He is currently on-a-run, tasting success consecutively with back to back commercial hits. Director Ranjith Sankar is a close friend of Jayasurya, and together they have created successful films like Punyalan Agarbattis, Su Su Sudhi Vathmeekam, Pretham and Punyalan Private Limited in the past. The duo has also joined hands to create a production house named 'Dreams N Beyond' and a distribution firm named 'Punyalan Cinemas'.

This Eid, they are back with another home production 'Njan Marykutty', a film that discusses a transsexual's struggle to stand up for oneself in a society that despises gender transformation. The plot of the movie revolves around Marykutty who was Mathukutty in the past. He, after undergoing surgery quits a high paying IT job in Chennai to come back to his hometown in Idukki. As expected, the society is hesitant in admitting Marykutty into their circle. This does not demoralise her and she decides to become a Sub Inspector of Police to make her parents (who are now ashamed of her) proud. The hurdles a transsexual has to jump over every day, just to lead a normal life forms the soul of the movie.

Ranjith Sankar's courage to experiment in Malayalam cinema by placing a transgender as the protagonist is praiseworthy. It has been written and directed neatly, having many good sequences that allow Jayasurya to perform out of his skin. The film mainly discusses two topics, a transgender's struggle and her dream to become a Police Officer. Both the topics have been presented on screen convincingly, but somewhere down the line, the film gets diluted by the two topics stepping on each other's toe. Presence of predictable and seen-before sequences slowly drifts the movie away from becoming a true and soulful depiction of the life of a transgender into a movie that sheds light mainly on their conventional and known struggles.

Njan Marykutty's cinematography is decent and helps the audience focus on the actor's performance rather than diverting their attention by breathtaking visuals. Despite having some technical glitches, Njan Marykutty communicates well through its visuals.

Anand Madhusoodhanan's music plays a great part in giving Njan Marykutty its energy. The songs and the background score are bound to have an everlasting impact on listeners.

Jayasurya is a great performer and Marykutty is yet another challenge successfully completed by him. After living in his house like a woman during the shoot, the actor has outperformed himself with sheer dedication and willingness. Joju George has yet again given a powerful performance as the antagonist. Suraj Venjammood, Innocent, Jewel Mary, Aju Varghese and Sidharth Siva have done justice to their role as the supporting cast.

The film is the first in Malayalam having a transgender as the center character; the kind that despite having a few shortcomings, will not disappoint the audience if watched without expecting a masterpiece.



Verdict: Njan Marykutty is a movie with a difference
BEHINDWOODS REVIEW BOARD RATING

( 2.75 / 5.0 )

 

Producer ivar thanne alle

 

Njan Marykutty from Ranjith Shankar Jayasurya team is more like an informative movie like Toilet Ek Prem Katha or Padman. The ultimate sentiment you have towards the movie is positive and that isn’t really because of the cinematic craft it shows, but mostly because of the subject it addresses. Just like how a superstar like Akshay Kumar was willing to play the lead role in the above mentioned Hindi films, the fact that someone like Jayasurya agreed to play such a character is perhaps the biggest achievement of Njan Marykutty.

So the film is about Marykutty who was born a male named Mathukutty. He wasn’t willing to adjust with the sexual orientation problem he faced for the first 26 years of his life and decides to undergo sex change operation. Now her aim is to get qualified for the SI test to join the police force and the movie takes us through the rough ride Marykutty had to go through.

There is a scene where Marykutty gets a registered letter and the priest next to her is worried about what could be in it. But Marykutty was least bothered about it and she was happy about the fact that the letter addressed her as Marykutty. And there is one more instance where one character casually apologizes to Marykutty. These two moments in the film were really good examples of how much of basic rights and common manners are not shown to transgender people. Like this, Njan Marykutti is a success if you ask whether it addresses all the issues they are facing. And the optimistic director has decided to make the character ambitious by giving her platforms to be an RJ and also to be aspiring to become an SI. The problem is in many places it becomes a lecture. The bumper sticker dialogue level depiction of conflict and confidence reduces the realness of the situation and this has been a common problem with Ranjith Shankar movies off late.

Jayasurya is undeniably fabulous in the film. He hasn’t overdone the character to make it an eccentric version. Even in gestures and body language, he limits it to a zone where we can sense realness. On the performance level, the next star for me was Joju George who made the orthodox-minded police officer a truly venomous representation of a particular mindset with great authenticity. Jewel Mary was fine. Innocent did his part in his usual style. Aju Varghese is there in a supporting role and it was so nice to see someone like Suraj Venjaramood playing the role of a district collector so gracefully.

As a director, Ranjith Shankar very rarely impresses you with the visual grammar or treatment of the film. The predictable pattern of scene structuring and the way drama gets executed are all very familiar and that does lighten the intensity of a topic like this demands. As a writer, he is optimistic and well researched. There was a bit in the earlier portions of the film where the character is talking about the medicine she is taking for the transformation. When I compare this movie with an Ardhanareeshwaran or an Aalorukkam, these are elements that are sort of making an impression. The cinematography is fine and much like most Ranjith Shankar films, there is a compact feel to the frames of Vishnu Narayanan. The music wasn’t really becoming that motivational and the background score becomes loud at times.

As I said in the beginning, Njan Marykutty is a film that is similar to the recent Akshay Kumar films. It has a theme that needs to be addressed and the story built around that subject has emotional warmth. The exceptional Jayasurya at the center covers up the flaws it was due to the lack of craft in filmmaking.

Rating: 3/5

 

അഭിനയ മികവിന്റെ മേരിക്കുട്ടി.
ജയസൂര്യ എന്ന നടന്റെ പരീക്ഷണം ആദ്യ ഷോ തന്നെ കാണണമെന്ന ഉറച്ച തീരുമാനമാണ് എന്നെ തീയേറ്ററിലേക്ക് എത്തിച്ചത്.
ഒരു നടന് എങ്ങനെയാണ് ഇത്തരത്തിൽ മാറാൻ സാധിക്കുക....?
കൈവിരൽ ചലനങ്ങൾ തൊട്ട് ചിരിയിൽ പോലും എനിക്കറിയാവുന്ന ജയനേ കാണാൻ സാധിച്ചില്ല പകരം മേരിക്കുട്ടി മാത്രം. തീയേറ്റിൽ പല സമയങ്ങളിലും കൈയ്യടികൾ ഉയർന്നപ്പോൾ ഞാനും സമാധാനിക്കുക ആയിരുന്നു,ജയൻ എന്ന നടൻ എടുത്ത റിസ്ക് പ്രേക്ഷകർ അംഗീകരിക്കുമ്പോൾ ,ജയസൂര്യയും, രഞ്ചിത്ത് ശങ്കറിനും തല ഉയർത്തി നിൽക്കാൻ സാധിക്കും. ചില കഥാപാത്രങ്ങൾ ഇങ്ങനെയാണ് നൂൽപ്പാലത്തിലൂടെയുള്ള ഈ യാത്രകളിൽ പരാജയപ്പെട്ടാൽ വൻ പരാജയവും, വിജയിച്ചാൽ വൻ വിജയങ്ങളും ആവർത്തിക്കപ്പെടും.
ഒരു വൻവിജയം ഈ സിനിമ അർഹിക്കുന്നു. ജയസൂര്യ എന്ന നടൻ പുതിയ പരീക്ഷണങ്ങളുമായി എത്താൻ ,നമ്മൾ ഈ സിനിമ വിജയിപ്പിക്കണം.
വിനോദ് ഗുരുവായൂർ.

 

പറഞ്ഞ വിഷയത്തിന്റെ തീവ്രത ആദ്യാവസാനം കാത്തുസൂക്ഷിച്ചു എന്നത് തന്നെയാണ് ഞാൻ മേരിക്കുട്ടിയുടെ ഏറ്റവും വലിയ മേന്മ ❤️
അതോടൊപ്പം ജയസൂര്യയുടെ അതി ശക്തമായ പ്രകടനവും
പ്രകടനത്തിന്റെ കാര്യത്തിൽ ഈ മനുഷ്യൻ വീണ്ടും വീണ്ടും വിസ്മയിപ്പിക്കുന്നു ❤️
'ഞാൻ മേരിക്കുട്ടി' ജയസൂര്യ - രഞ്ജിത്ത് ശങ്കർ കൂട്ടുകെട്ടിലെ ഏറ്റവും മികച്ച ചിത്രങ്ങളിൽ ഒന്ന്
#NjaanMarykutty

 

ഞാൻ മേരിക്കുട്ടി..വർണ്ണിക്കാൻ വാക്കുകൾ പോര...കണ്ടു കഴിഞ്ഞു കയ്യടിക്കാൻ മറന്നു..കാരണം മുന്നിൽ കണ്ടത് സിനിമയെന്ന് വിശ്വസിക്കാൻ പ്രയാസം..മേരിക്കുട്ടി ജയസൂര്യ ആയിരുന്നെന്നും..പകരം വെക്കാനാകില്ല എന്നു ഒരു നടനെ കുറിച്ചു പറയുമ്പോൾ അയാൾ ഒരു ലെജൻഡ് ആവും..ജയസൂര്യ ആ വഴിയിൽ ആണ്