Why NASIR Is Considered As One Of The Best Portrayal Of A Common Man On The Silver Screen?
NASIR is a seventy-eight minute-long Tamil movie directed by Arun Karthick. It is a 2020 Tamil-drama movie and Indo-Dutch co-production between Stray Factory, Rinkel Film, Uncombed Buddha, Magic Hour Films, Colored Pickle film & Harman Venture. The film was premiered at the prestigious International Film Festival of Rotterdam in Tiger Competition. It was awarded the NETPAC award for the Best Asian Film at the International Film Festival of Rotterdam 2020. The film also received the Hubert Bals Fund in 2018. This film is based on Dilip Kumar’s short story titled “ A Clerk’s Story”
The Backdrop And Characters of the Movie
The story of the movie is set in the Indian city Coimbatore. Coimbatore is also called “The Manchester of South India”. It is well known for its good quality cotton-apparel. The lead characters of the movie are Nasir, his Wife Begum Taj, his adopted son Iqbal and his mother. Iqbal is a special child with the body of an adult and the vulnerability of a child. Nasir’s mother is suffering from cancer. Nasir works at a garment shop run by a Hindu as a Clerk. The garment shop is located in the Coimbatore market. His wife Begum is gone to visit her relatives for a few days.
Character Sketch Of Nasir
Nasir’s Poor Life
The word “Poor Life” means poverty-stricken life. He stays in a very small house with a single bedroom, kitchen and bathroom. His family has four members including him.
He is the sole breadwinner and has to strive hard to maintain his family. He works hard daily to make sure that he can find a special school for his mentally vulnerable adopted son and also wants to save his mother who has been suffering from Cancer. Nasir is not cribbing about his present situation and always wants to improve it. He is also ready to work as a labourer in the middle east countries. When there was a need for some money at home for the medical expenses of his mother and Iqbal, he was ready to travel miles away from the city to deliver the suits to the customers of the shop where he worked as a clerk.
Nasir’s Respect For Other Religions
The movie starts with Nasir starting his day with a prayer. He also never missed the afternoon prayer session at the mosque despite his busy schedule at work. He is a religious Muslim.
In a country like India, we live in a society where we respect each other's faiths and religious beliefs. Nasir starts his work at the shop as early as possible. He starts by cleaning all the shop floor and arranging the garments. Despite being a Muslim, he is ready to clean and arrange the photos and statues of the Hindu Gods and Goddesses in the store. His employer tries to hide his contempt towards the Muslims but he couldn’t hide it. The frame of Nasir cleaning the Lord Krishna’s statue at the garment store symbolizes India’s Unity in Diversity.
Nasir Being Treated Like A Doormat By The Customers
Being a clerk in a garment or any retail store is not really easy. Being treated like a doormat means being treated unfairly and still not speak against the unfair treatment meted out. Nasir was more or less treated like a doormat by his own customers. Now let me cite an example from the movie that proves that Nasir was being treated like a doormat.
Nasir needed some money for an emergency expenditure back home. He asks his employer for Rs 5000 in advance and his employer initially refuses. He asks Nasir to deliver three suits to the Architecture college students and collect the money from the customers as his advance payment. These architecture students stay in a hostel that is quite far away from Coimbatore and the employer allows Nasir to use his Activa to reach the destination. He goes to the hostel and heads to meet his first customer Rajesh. Rajesh and his roommate were hooked on drugs. His roommate opens the door and does not take Rajesh’s coat from Nasir stating that Rajesh is down with fever while Nasir knows that Rajesh is in the room. The door was shut on his face. Then heads to meet the next customer Moses. Moses reluctantly shuts the door on Nasir stating that he did not want the coat this week and he would come next week. He could finally deliver Harikrishnan’s coat and collect the money.
Nasir was treated quite badly by the customers. In our own life, we have also witnessed a waiter or a clerk being treated unfairly and the individual has no courage to complain or defend themselves. Just because someone is poor and is not working in a white collared job, does it mean that the individual can be treated like a doormat. Society is quite harsh on such people.
The Romantic and Poetic Side Of Nasir
Love is in the air. This is the most commonly used romantic line right. Nasir loves his wife a lot. He did not want to stay away from his wife even for a few days when she decides to visit her relatives. He fondly remembers the golden days of his marriage and the first song that he sang for his wife on the day of his marriage. The song is none other than the romantic song “Kaalangalil Aval Vasantham” from the movie Paava Mannippu that released in the year 1961.
Nasir loves poetry. His often poems are so good that his colleagues at work would want to listen to his splendid poems.
Nasir is more of a vintage present-day romantic who loves to write letters to his wife in an era where love has taken a digital dimension.
The Extremely Talkative Nasir
One of the key qualities of a clerk in a retail store is to be extremely talkative and successfully convince the customers to buy the product at the shop. Nasir is truly an amazing clerk with his command in his oratory skills. He pretty much effortlessly convinces his customers to buy the sarees.
The Climax
To answer this question “Why NASIR Is Considered As One Of The Best Portrayal Of A Common Man On The Silver Screen?”, we need to know a bit about the climax of this movie. Nasir heads back to the shop after delivering the coat to the architecture student. Then a person comes to the store warning them to shut the store and leave as soon as possible because the protesters were heading towards the market. They would destroy anything that comes in their way. The shop is closed and Nasir bids adieu to his colleagues. Then he heads to a street food joint to get four idlis and two dosas. Then he continues thinking about his life. He thinks about his wife, the treatment for his mother suffering from cancer and his mentally ill adopted son. He thinks about heading to the middle east to work as a labourer to meet his family’s financial needs.
While walking through the lonely street, the angry protesters incited by the hate-based political thoughts and ideals lynch and kill Nasir. His body lies helpless with no one around to help him. This scene was quite tragic and it is arguable one of the most heartwrenching scene that I have ever witnessed.
Conclusion
The climax of the movie has an answer to my question “Why NASIR Is Considered As One Of The Best Portrayal Of A Common Man On The Silver Screen?”. As a concluding remark, I would like to say
Hate Based Politics is no less than a venom spewed into a society where people live in harmony and peace. In such a political scenario, the common man is merely reduced a scapegoat in the hands of the bureaucrats and politicians who intend to incite fanning hatred amongst the people to conquer their political aspirations and goals.
Here you can watch the trailer of NASIR
