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Release
date:
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February 2, 2018
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Director:
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Shyamaprasad
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Cast:
Language:
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Nivin Pauly,
Trisha Krishnan, Siddique, Neena Kurup, Vijay Menon, Aju Varghese
Malayalam
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Jude is different. At 28, he is
more socially awkward than a pubescent teen and easily bullied. He is
hardworking and, in his specific areas of interest, brilliant. He obsesses
about his routine. He refuses to tell lies even if his congenital honesty
causes embarrassment to a family member. His idea of frankness extends to
telling people hurtful truths that need not be told. He has no friends.
His loving mother Maria – a
stay-at-home parent – worries about him. His father Dominique (pronounced
Dominic), who runs an antique store in Kochi, is forever exasperated with him.
His college-going younger sister Andrea tolerates him with condescending
amusement.
On a trip to Goa with his Mum and
Dad, Jude meets the noisy, music-loving Crystal Ann Chakraparambu and her
father Sebastian. Crys runs a café and is the lead vocalist in a local band
that performs at her restaurant and at weddings. Sebastian is a psychologist
who, when not swimming in alcohol or betting on cricket matches, uses music as
therapy for persons with mental/psychological issues, leads Tai Chi sessions in
his front yard and hangs out with Crys.
Unlikely friendships are formed,
and over time Jude begins to understand his own diffidence better. As he does,
his family too starts seeing him with new eyes, not as an eccentric or
difficult youngster, but as a unique individual with special problems and
gifts.
Art-house director Shyamaprasad
opts for a light touch in Hey Jude.
In terms of its naturalistic, unmelodramatic narrative style, the film sits
well with the likes of last year’s Nivin Pauly-starrer Njandukalude Nattil Oridavela and other slice-of-life cinema that
has been a hallmark of the Malayalam New Wave – if you wish to call it that –
of the past decade or so. Pauly himself has been one of the stars at the
forefront of this movement that has earned massive box-office returns while
defying many of the conventions of commercial cinema. In Hey Jude, he plays the title character whose Asperger’s Syndrome is
staring back at viewers with any degree of awareness about the condition, long
before he is diagnosed in the film.
Asperger’s is part of an umbrella
category of disorders called Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) marked by
challenges with social skills, behaviour and communication. In Jude’s case,
what to a viewer comes across as endearing innocence is irritating to Dominique
and Andrea. This leads to many comical situations. What sustains Hey Jude through its entire first half
is the sensitivity with which Shyamaprasad portrays their interactions (even if
Jude’s actions are foreseeable to us while, oddly enough, the father who has
known him all his life cannot seem to predict them).
The delicacy with which Hey Jude treads around its central
character in its pre-interval portion is one of its many attractions. We are
introduced to his multiple quirks with humour and affection, yet the
storyteller is never patronising towards him.
Not everyone on the autism
spectrum is a savant, but this expectation has been a widely held misconception
about ASD ever since the global success of the Hollywood film Rain Man (1988) in which Dustin Hoffman
played a mathematical genius with autism. Possibly because of this false
impression arising from a film that otherwise had a huge role in awareness
building around autism, and perhaps because I am currently also watching the US
TV serial The Good Doctor, in which
the protagonist is a genius medico with autism, frankly I have been longing to
see a screen offering on someone with any disorder on the spectrum who is not a genius. Be that as it may, Hey Jude does still score – when
assessed in this context – because it is not fixated on Jude’s incredible
knowledge of oceanography or his calculator brain, its focus throughout remains
his confusion about his distinctive limitations.
That said, it defies
believability that Maria and Dominique, who seem educated and certainly belong
to a community and a state known for their high education levels (they are
Malayali Anglo-Indians), would not have doggedly sought medical opinions about
their unusual son in all these years. It appears that Maria’s sounding board
until the events of the film is their priest. Considering the compulsory
educational qualifications required to be a Christian priest, it further defies
believability that that gentleman would not have advised them to consult a doc
about Jude.
Even if you buy this set of
improbabilities, what is impossible to swallow is the extremely unintelligent
behaviour of the doctor who does at last use the A word to the parents.
(Spoilers
ahead)
The series of missteps in Hey Jude’s second half begins with what
can only be described as mind-boggling stupidity on the part of Dr Sebastian
who not only leaves copious notes about Jude’s Asperger’s lying around where
the young man could easily chance upon them, but even goes so far as to
describe him as “abnormal” to his face.
It is also troubling that the
film does not deem it fit to examine a point raised by Jude when he sees that
the doctor had, without his permission, viewed his intensely personal video
diaries. Jude is unequivocal in his furious assertion that this is an invasion
of privacy. By leaving that point hanging, the film suggests that it is not
important enough. Before that, Maria and Dominique are shown not even batting
an eyelid when they find the videos with Sebastian. It is as if intruding on the
private space of an adult who is not considered “normal” is kosher.
By this time, a certain
predictability has settled into the proceedings. That scene in which Jude
finally overcomes his fear of water to save his Dad from drowning can be seen
coming from a mile. I mean, c’mon, at a party filled with able-bodied adults,
no one else jumps into the swimming pool when Dominique falls in, as if they
all knew the passage had been written into the screenplay of their lives to
give Jude a chance to cross this milestone.
(Spoiler
alert ends)
Hey Jude then is a mixed bag. Nivin
Pauly’s remarkably restrained performance imbues the film with an all-pervasive
charm that overrides its follies. The downplaying of his natural good looks,
the precise way he says “crispy”, the ungainly manner in which he storms up a
flight of steps to his room – there is not an iota of exaggeration in any of
this, it is all just so.
One of the aforesaid follies lies
in the greater depth and verve lent to the writing of Dominique rather than
Jude. Although Jude is the lead, Dominique dominates the narrative and, played
as he is with such gentle nuance by veteran actor Siddique, ends up being more
memorable.
Hey Jude is the Malayalam debut of
Telugu-Tamil superstar Trisha Krishnan who has made the same mistake now as
with her 2010 Hindi debut Khatta Meetha:
she has chosen to play second fiddle to a major male star already established
in the industry she is just entering (earlier, Akshay Kumar) instead of opting
for a film in which hero and heroine get equal space. Krishnan looks beautiful
here as always, but beyond bringing her innate charisma to the role, there is
not much she can do with her sketchily outlined character or the rushed
reference to Crys’ bipolar disorder.
Aju Varghese in Hey Jude, on the other hand, gets a
hilarious cameo to beat all cameos.
DoP Girish Gangadharan – whose
work in Angamaly Diaries is still
fresh in the mind – fills the film with glossy visuals. He is on a roll when
showing us the changing geographical landscape on the road trip from Kerala to
Goa, though I wish that spectacular aerial shot of a pristine beach as the
family enters Goa was not repeated as they leave. If the intent was to bookend
Jude’s stay, it does not make sense since his personal journey does not finish
there. The dialogue writing though switches smoothly between Malayalam and
English, as it would in this milieu in real life.
Hey Jude’s music is an ode, witting or
not, to the Beatles with whose song it shares its title. One of the most-loved
bands of all time, the Beatles’ works were distinguished by irresistible tunes
and very basic lyrics. Each song here is hummable, but the words of at least
two – Hey don’t worry Jude and Rock rock (well sung by Sayanora Philip)
– are so rudimentary as to be amusing.
Still, the pleasantness of the
melodies matches Hey Jude’s overall
tone: sweet and affecting. This is the sort of film that made me want to put my
hand on my heart and go, “Awwww.”
Rating
(out of five stars): **1/2
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CBFC Rating (India):
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U
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Running time:
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146 minutes
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This review was also published on Firstpost:
