Varane Avashyamund Malayalam Movie Review
Reviewer: Chandra Mohan Gopinath
There are a few reasons that grabs the attention towards this Anoop Sathyan directorial. And one among them that prompted me to take the first flight for Varane Avashyamund over another promising film that released today was the reunion of the yesteryear stars Suresh Gopi and Shobana. And that apart we have Kalyani Priyadarshan making her debut in Malayalam while Dulquer Salman who apart from donning his regular role as an actor dons the mantle of a producer for the first time in his short but successful career.
Anoop Sathyan’s directorial style and the route he adopted reminds us of his illustrious father but the flavour of the film is tilted towards an urban lifestyle. Varaney Aavashyamund is a breezy family saga with a steady flow providing wholesome entertainment. If I have to borrow words from Dulquer Salman himself, the film has elements of love, life, family, romance, humour, relationships and everything that we expect from films of this genre. And all these elements play their part to good effect to make the end result a pleasing and satisfying experience.
The four people whom you see in the poster accompanying this write-up are around whom the movement of the story happen. In an apartment set in Chennai, we have a single mother Neena and her daughter Nikitha taking their life forward while Major Unnikrishnan is their neighbour. Bibeesh at some point also become a resident of this apartment. Varane Avashyamund is the story of these four people and show us how it gets connected finally.
If one is to look deep down into the story, there is nothing much happening in the whole film at a conflict level. Basically, the plot is all about how things evolve for the central characters and how their daily life goes about. The area that the subject later address is about relationships. One is between a mother and daughter where a daughter initially finds it difficult to adjust when she discover that her mother is getting into a relationship with a retired Army Major. This relationship has been treated with so much maturity that helps the plot get a treatment what it demands. Nikhita’s romance which gets broken up didn’t look to be a convincing one and the manner in which it broke also was not able to get that emotional feel with it.
What the director wanted was to bring in that aspect of positivity and a fair result to all the angles in the subject and to achieve that, the film uses a predictable and familiar route. As the film reaches the halfway mark, there is a little vacuum felt on the depth in the plot is concerned. And beyond post-intermission, it was an easy guessing game as to where the narrative was heading towards. But if the screenplay and its treatment can compensate the weaknesses in a film, that would help it to land in a safer zone. That’s what we see in Varane Avashyamund. The writings trying to use references, mimic dance steps and taking dialogues of the two lead actors was nicely blended into the narrative. It wasn’t overly used and only helped in bringing in some laughs thereby supporting the humour in the film.
Talking about performances, it was a good sight to see Suresh Gopi and Shobhana being paired up again. Suresh Gopi donned the role of Major Unnikrishnan, a man who is short of confidence and one lacking the courage to talk to women. It was a different role to play for the actor who is more famous for enacting characters with fire on screen. And he enacted it in a mild and composed manner leaving no space for anyone to complain. Watch out for the way in which he deliver a speech that appear towards the finish that clearly gives the proof that there is still that actor in him. Shobhana looked class apart and it was more of an elegant way of how Neena needs to be presented that we see from her. Some expressions and using eyes to convey things was something she only can bring to the table.
Kalyani Priyadarshan made a confident debut and never looked like a newcomer infront of the camera. For Dulquer it was more of a supporting role with limited screen space where there was nothing much to do except act the normal way. On the other supporting actors, Johny Antony was hilarious while Lalu Alex and Urvashi appeared for a short period and made it count. A film of this nature required the frames to be as rich as possible with the matching colour tone and Mukesh Muraleedharan, the cinematographer can be proud of what he has done behind the camera. There are four or five songs in the film and I found each of them apt for the scenes in which they were placed. Alphons Joseph can take credit for his notable work on the music side. The running time could have been pruned a little to make the film a little more crispier.
FINAL VERDICT : The term feel-good is a term used very often these days and Varane Avashyamund perfectly fits that billing. This is purely a simple family oriented film flowing at a very leisurely pace and gives the audience to sit back and watch the proceedings with a relaxed frame of mind. Emphasizing on love and relationships, the film except for some brief moments of lag in the narrative is definitely one-time watchable.
