It seems like Malayalam directors bring out their best if the story is based in Cochin. A few movies are Big B, Chotta Mumbai, Best Actor, etc and now Nayakan. Lijo did a marvelous job directing, being his first film. The cast was great too. It seemed very different from the usual Malayalam films. The opening credits looked like the new beginning for Malayalam movies where there credits art looked right off a comic book and the brilliant work from Prashant Pillai with back ground scoring & music. The person who played the dirty cop with his Cochi slang was fun to watch. Siddique proves time & again that given any role there couldn't be anyone who could have done it better. Dhanya Mary can definitely bring out any emotions with her face and the is great talent(like Jagathi says the 'navarasangal'; she is good with that). Thilagan & Jagathi too did a good job. Indrajith was on a league of his own with this movie. If Mammootty is remembered for his role in The King & Mohanlal for his role as Mangalashairee Neelakandan; then this will be one of the movies Indrajith will be remember by the Malayalam audience for years to come. The only minor setback, not that it ruined the movie in any way was that the movie had slight similarities with certain Hollywood movies(and again I'm not taking anything away from this movie or Lijo's direction). I would say Malayalam industry has got itself a Robert Rodriguez/Quentin Tarantino style movie maker & Lijo is a director whose movies are definitely to look out for.
Review of Nayakan
