Brahman Naman is a sex-comedy about three young men who love women, quizzing and alcohol.

Cast: Shashank Arora, Anula Navlekar, Tanma y Dhanania, Chaitanya Bharad, Sid Mallya, Denzel Smith and Biswa Kalyan Ruth.

Direction: Q

Ratings: (3.5/5)

When the short, wiry, nondescript champion quizzer Naman (Shashank Arora of Titli fame) is called a Brahmin fundamentalist, a sexist and an alcoholic by Naina (Anula Navlekar) during a meet cute, Naman takes it as a compliment, laughs it off, and proceeds to drink booze from the flask Naina has brought with her. Qaushiq Mukherjee AKA Q's new film Brahman Naman maintains this dryly comic but irreverent tone throughout its 90-minute run-time.

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And perhaps for the first time, Q (maker of the subversive and sexually bold cult Bengali films Gandu and Tasher Desh) has made a film that appeals more to the heart than the head. Scripted by Naman Ramachandran, Brahman Naman, set in 80s Bangalore (now Bengaluru), is the story of three Brahmin boys - Naman, Ajay (Tanmay Dhanania) and Ramu (Chaitanya Bharad), who are first rate quizzers and drinkers. But when it comes to dealing with women, they are grossly third-rate.

A still from Brahman Naman A still from Brahman Naman

This gang is joined by their college junior Randy (Vaishwath Shankar), who learns the ways of life - the Brahman Naman way - from the trio. Perhaps a movie like this, where the protagonist masturbates into and using house furniture while imagining a perfectly nice Catholic girl in lingerie, garter belt, thigh highs - the whole nine yards - spitting on camera, could easily be clubbed with the likes of Kya Kool Hain Hum as something vile and disgusting. But the film succeeds because of multiple reasons.

Firstly, the sex-hungry, socially inept heroes of Brahman Naman are shown to be products of a highly conservative environment where they have decided that their only self-worth comes from their Brahmin status and, well, knowing it all. As such, they don't think twice before treating women or whoever they deem as lesser humans, with arrogance and condescension. Secondly, here the characters of Naman, Ajay, Ramu and Randy are some 19-20 years old, played by actors close to that age, as opposed to 35-year-olds starring as college-goers, trying to stick their neck up Sunny Leone's skirt and that too in film after film.

A still from Brahman Naman A still from Brahman Naman

Most importantly, the film is held together by some stellar writing that is very oddball, very dry, on the lines of western indie comedies like the Jay and Silent Bob films, Napoleon Dynamite (2004) and The Sasquatch Gang (2006). The cinematic language of this film is a tough thing to pull off if you are not well acquainted with it. But Naman (the writer) finds his perfect partner in Q who is the last person to hold back and play safe while making a film in this country.

What is most enchanting about the film is how the very auteur-like Q uses his very distinctive filmmaking style to serve the comically rich but intellectually dense screenplay, instead of trying to topple it with his characteristic hyperactiveness.

Q uses sepia-toned, old, Doordashan-style animation to depict several passages in the film; most notably Naman's frequent Brahmanical wrath. Music, as always in Q's films, is a seperate character, and the pop-rock score by Neel and Miti Adhikari supports the film's laidback, whimsical nature. Lastly, a bunch of wonderful actors, particularly Denzil Smith and comedian Biswa Kalyan Rath, in supporting roles are an asset to this indie comedy. And if you were wondering, yes, Sid Mallya can act.

As is always the norm with films about immature 20-year-olds looking for sex, the film's story is all about coming-of-age, finding love, understanding life, and so on and so forth. The big moments do not come easy and even when they come, you don't know when they go past you. Neither do Brahman Naman's heroes, because they are stupid and self-involved.

Romance blooms between Shashank Arora and Anula Navlekar in a still from Brahman Naman Romance blooms between Shashank Arora and Anula Navlekar in a still from Brahman Naman

By the end of the film, Naman has had his heart broken by three girls - the sex fantasy Rita (singer-actor Subholina Sen), the smart and affable Naina (the brilliant Anula Navlekar) and the insecure but self-respecting wallflower Ash (Sindhu Sreenivasa Murthy) - and yet he learns nothing, except cinema has taught us that by the end the hero either has a girl, and if not, a revelation. But here, we have Naman humming The Doors' Alabama Song with his boys in the last shot.

Well, where else to go? After all, as the film's opening shot declares, "All said and done, the young male, anywhere in the world is a rather ugly and pointless evolutionary experiment." Thankfully, the experiment that is Brahman Naman works.

