Release date:
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Delhi: November 4, 2016. Kerala: October 21, 2016.
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Director:
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Ganesh Raj
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Cast:
Language:
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Thomas
Matthew, Siddhi Mahajankatti, Arun Kurian, Roshan Mathew, Annu Antony, Vishak
Nair, Anarkali Marikar
Malayalam
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A bunch of college kids from Kerala travel to Karnataka and Goa on the
first “industrial visit” of their course. The trip is meant to acquaint them
with the ground realities of their chosen field – the software industry – but
each of the students involved has a different, non-academic motivation for
going: a personal demon to be exorcised, a family trauma to be escaped, a
romance they hope will take off when they are on the road.
Produced by actor-director-singer Vineeth Sreenivasan and directed by
debutant Ganesh Raj, Aanandam is a coming-of-age story set in an
engineering college. At the centre of the action are seven friends: Varun,
Akshay, Kuppi, Gautham, Diya, Darshana and Devika. Gautham (Roshan Mathew) is
the lead singer of a rock group and much sought after by other women students.
He though has eyes only for his lady love Devika (Annu Antony). Akshay (Thomas
Matthew) has been utterly smitten since Day 1 of college by the feisty, chirpy
Diya (Siddhi Mahajankatti). Varun (Arun Kurian) is an obsessively hard-working
type. Darshana (Anarkali Marikar) is an artist who barely speaks a word. And
Kuppi (Vishak Nair) is an easygoing, sociable, popular guy. It goes without
saying that the lives of each of the lead players in the story is somewhat, if
not drastically, changed by their excursion.
The best thing that can be said about Aanandam is that it is
harmless, inoffensive fun. For the most part, it is not particularly original, and if you think about it, each character
is a bit of a cliché from this genre. Some of the conversations in English also
sound strained and trying too hard to be cool. What works in favour of the film
though is its simplicity, its sense of humour (strictly restricted to the passages
in Malayalam) and its take on boy-girl equations that defies the norm in
Mollywood.
In an industry that routinely romanticises and normalises stalking,
stupidity and immaturity as the only routes to romance in a gender-segregated
society, it is refreshing to see the writing of Akshay’s character – a young
man who is determined not to harass the classmate he likes, who understands her
hesitation to enter into a romantic relationship with him, and who does not
dismiss her as a tease simply because she is friendly yet disinterested in
anything beyond that.
Contrast this with two other Malayalam films in theatres right now. In
the Mohanlal-starrer Pulimurugan, pestering is casually viewed as the
way to a woman’s heart, and in the smaller Kavi Uddheshichathu? starring
Asif Ali, the leading man’s ugly anger towards the heroine for rejecting him
exemplifies the average Mollywood hero’s response to a no from a woman.
That said, Ganesh Raj – who has also written Aanandam – needs to
sort out what appears to be his confusion on this front, since his film
features a brief scene in which a young man admonishes a young woman because
several of her male collegemates have fallen for her charms, as though she is
somehow to blame for their vulnerability. What is she to do, Kuppi? Be less
vivacious? Draw a burqa over her affability?
Still, baby steps forward should be lauded in a scenario that is so
completely male chauvinistic.
On the technical front, cinematographer Anend C. Chandran delivers an
array of luscious images of Kerala, Karnataka and Goa in Aanandam. It is
such a pleasure to see the out-of-this world gorgeousness of Hampi getting so
much screen space in a mainstream Indian film. However, Chandran’s framing is
constrained in the shots of the night sky at a Goa party in the climactic
scene, which should have been a natural stunner but is too glaringly
CGI-dominated to be appealing.
The songs feel like they are too many and too long. It does not help
that they are set against trite visuals of stolen glances, energetic dancing
and conversations in slow motion, all designed to convey a breezy, youthful
light-heartedness that feels contrived after a point. The songs themselves are
okay, though I do not get why that number in the ruins of
Hampi is sung by a troupe played by actors who are clearly white Westerners yet
sing in perfect Indian accents.
The lead actors are all newcomers. While some of them fall prey to the
limited writing, I think I would like very much to see more films with the
quietly attractive Arun Kurian and Roshan Mathew who appears instinctively easy
before the camera.
Aanandam got me into a forgiving mood, perhaps because it is such a relief to
see a Malayalam film in which when a man loves a woman, he does not harass her
(to paraphrase Percy Sledge). In the overall
analysis, this is a mildly engaging, mildly sweet, inoffensive film. It does
not have staying power in the mindspace, but it is fair enough while it lasts.
Rating
(out of five): *1/2
CBFC Rating (India):
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U
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Running time:
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120 minutes
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This
review has also been published on Firstpost:
Did u really mean to give it 1.5 stars? Reading your review, I think there has been a mistake.
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