Amazon Prime Video released ‘#Home’, a highly anticipated movie starring Indrans, Sreenath Bhasi and Manju Pillai, a few hours. However, this film also has managed to nab a relatively unknown actor, Nalsen K. Gafoor, as one of its leads. Nalsen, however, was also a part of the cast of Amazon Prime Video’s previously released Malayalam feature film, ‘Kuruthi’. While he had a supporting role in this movie, the actor managed to make his presence known on screen, similar to the aforementioned, ‘#Home’. We have only seen two direct-to-OTT releases so far, but both movies were memorable – Nalsen playing key roles in both films.
In ‘Kuruthi’, Nalsen plays Rasool, a young boy from a poor household, who doesn’t do any work or study – rather hangs out with a radical religious group during his free time. While he is outspoken about his beliefs, he doesn’t outright confront people or act on his violent thoughts and for the most part, sticks to talking and arguments. However, Rasool goes through a journey due to some unforeseen events and Nalsen manages to play a nuanced role of a young man having to choose between faith and violence.
In ‘#Home”, Nalsen plays Charles Oliver Twist, an aspiring YouTuber who comes from a happy family. He is a lazy young man, who doesn’t like doing any work, except for uploading his videos – which he finally gets good at (by the end of the movie). He is inadvertently at war with his mother, and he gets his comeuppance by the end of the film. In this role, Nalsen is one of the four actors on focus alongside the aforementioned heavyweights Indrans, Sreenath Bhasi and Manju Pillai and he does his best to hold his own against them onscreen.
Nalsen may play a lazy character in two films, but both roles are different, and the actor has to put in a lot of work to play both roles. In ‘Kuruthi’, the actor is usually the instigator of drama and conflict, while in ‘#Home’, he is the diffuser of conflict and is used as a comedic mouth-piece for the screenwriter. Both roles require an amount of refinement, and Nalsen manages to do justice to both roles. We expect this young actor to continue grabbing good supporting roles, and eventually a lead role as well.
Check out ‘Kuruthi’ and ‘#Home’ on Amazon Prime Video.