Nonsense

Nonsense would appear like a high school romcom from the posters but it's anything but that. The title cards suggest a new-age film with peppy music and visuals but it's not that either. The entire film is set in a village and the characters except those inside the school are all villagers. Why do some characters look and sound urban when the setting is such a small village? Is it south or north Kerala; why do the slangs contradict each other? Is the protagonist rich or poor? All these remain questions, but none of them matter at the end. Because Nonsense is an immensely watchable film, made by a director with promise (MC Jithin, who identifies himself as MC in the titles), with dialogues by a writer with an impeccable sense of humour. In fact it can be considered an example of how a film can be made interesting and fresh without a star line-up. 

Arun (newcomer Rinosh George), seemingly an orphan, lives in a world with his own theories of physics, and dreams of being a BMX (bicycle motorcross) superstar. He is far from being a troublemaker but gets picked on at school for anything and everything. To such an extent that his teacher's daughter thinks his very name is 'Nonsense'. The film follows the story of mainly one school day in Arun's life, a bad one at that, when a hartal is announced by noon. Arun who is already in trouble with teachers finds himself in a situation where the teacher's daughter gets hit by a careless driver. The do-gooder in him arises and Arun takes on the task of saving the life of the child, in the absence of her parents. He seeks the help of a reluctant auto driver (Vinay Forrt) and both embark on a roller-coaster ride, literally, in search of A negative blood for the child, on the hartal day.

The film touches upon many, at times completely unrelated subjects - how schools stifle the creativity of children, how hartals often cost lives, how meaningless fights in the name of politics and religion are, and also the basic nature of human beings. Party workers who turn violent on hartal are shown as local goondas who double up as moral police. 

BMX as a sport is also promoted, but it somehow doesn't seem to fit into the otherwise rural life.

While Rinosh George presents a reasonably good performance, Vinay Forrt is amazing, so is Shajohn, in yet another of his formidable avatars, this time as a ruthless school teacher. Shruti Ramachandran as the strict teacher, Lalu Alex as a doctor all have small but memorable roles. The upbeat music and awesome visuals of the BMX stunts deserve special mention.The episodes in school are fun and relatable, and except for being preachy at times, Nonsense is surely a winner, devoid of the usual cliches Malayalam films are ridden with.