Nasir movie review: When humanity cried and went silent

What: A sharp mirror of our times, our fae, faith, humanity and more

NASIR movie review

Adapted from author Dilip Kumar’s A CLERK’S STORY, NASIR is about a Coimbatore Muslim Nasir (Koumarane Valavane – pure brilliance) a simple man living a simple life, his struggles, how he copes with his shortcomings and maintains patience. It’s difficult for any ‘common’ man but it gets more difficult for a ‘tolerant’ human like Nasir in the world we live in. He wakes up with the Azan and pecks a kiss on the lips of his wife Tal (Sudha Ranganathan), his day begins with the loudspeakers from different area talking about the glory of their faith. The area and faith keeps on changing but the speeches coming out have a ‘common’ agenda. Nasir is never perturbed by what is happening around him – the world. He finds solace in his poetry, Ilaiyaraaja, thumris, ghazals. Nasir works in a shop owned by a Hindu. Nasir cleans the idols of Hindu gods, put bindis on those mannequins. The bindi, the shop, the dusting on the idols of Hindu gods resembles the secular nature of the surrounding. The atmosphere is lamentably spoiled by his Boss who supports the right wing Hindus.   

Arun Karthick brilliantly in the movie uses dialogues, sounds to depict the prevailing hatred. The silence observed when Nasir’s Boss ends his hatred on phone and the silence observed before the end credits is pure genius. 

Nasir is like many Indians, humans who think rationally but their voice, desires are getting crushed, murdered by this narrow minded thinking that purely survives on hatred.

Nasir is hopeful, he is hoping against hope. He is not against the system in spite of the venoms spread against his community. In the age of smart phones, Nasir writes love letters to his wife and his letters are laced with poetry.

Not the danger of his religion which is wrongly said to be under threat, Nasir is bothered about his ‘family’. His ailing mother, his adoptive son Iqbal - a special child.

Arun Karthick consolidates his mark as a filmmaker with solid substance in NASIR after the astonishing debut with SIVAPURANAM (2016).

Bottom Line

Arun Karthick’s NASIR makes a quiet but haunting plea on humanity and equality that echoes with a chorus.