Movie Review – Hridayam

Darshanaaaaaa….

‘Hridhayam’ should be ‘Darshana’ by a fair distance because it is a film all about her and a splendid performance by Darshana. But that takes nothing away from ‘Hridhayam’ being ‘Hridhayam’. There is a reason why it’s a much-loved movie by everyone in recent days. It plays the nostalgia part very well and gives the feel goodness only the Mallus can do. Though it feels like too much of events happening everywhere and it takes the ‘coming of age’ tag a little too generously, it still is one of the best feel-good films of recent days. May be if it had been told from Darshana’s point of view, it could have ended up as a much better film.

There were a couple of films which were constantly coming to my mind while watching ‘Hridhayam’. One is ‘June’ and another one in ‘Tamasha’. Both are unbeatable by a fair distance. The fact that the films is about Arun (Pranav Mohanlal) and his journey in life couldn’t help but make us compare with an Imtiaz Ali film. Though its not a story about a broken man like that of ‘Tamasha’, the loneliness of Deepika in “Heer to badi sad vai” somehow reminded me of Darshana. How mature these ladies are whereas the men just go haywire once they’ve fallen apart.

‘Tamasha’ by fair distance is a better film Hridhayam both for its story as well as film making because none can beat Ranbir when it comes to “coming of age” films. He has absolutely mastered the art of it. That combined with Imtiaz is a firecracker. But luckily or happily, ‘Hridhayam’ trends in an unglamorized ‘Yeh Jawaani Hai Deewani’ way or its much closer companion would be ‘Vaaranam Aayiram’, a film which felt like it was overdone than necessary. I’m sure that Pranav with guitar in railway station would have got many reminded of ‘Vaaranam Aayiram’.

What’s beautiful about Hridhayam is that it doesn’t take itself too seriously. Especially the clashes amongst the friends. I thought at least one big fight was bound to happen, but it didn’t. Everything was handled in a comical way. Be the scene where the senior walk out from Arun’s room after hearing English, the playboy Kedar Kamalesh (Abishek Joseph George) not fighting seeing Arun etc. Those scenes could have easily given a mass appeal to the hero, but they didn’t, thanks for that. If it had been done, it should have been done in the right way like ‘Premam’ where the action sequences were lit but it immediately changes the tempo to comical one in the next scene. But again ‘Premam’ is a much more serious film when compared in ‘Hridhayam’ because ‘Premam’ was perfect in what it did.

The film stars with a “hero” introduction scene but wasn’t overdone like how sons of Tamil or worse, Telegu stars would get introduced in their debut film, but it still was an “introduction” scene by Malayalam standards. Then there were regular college antics like ragging and stuff. I loved the part where he starts wearing branded clothes back, it was like a statement not only to seniors but for the nation as a whole. From there till the breakup, with Darshana song, was the best part of the movie. The feel goodness just oozing out of movie. My thought was that they’d have a great romance, and the heroine would die in interval and next heroine would soothe him in second half. I knew that Kalyani Priyadarashan was there so expected this to happen but didn’t want it to happen. Thankfully it didn’t.

Following the Darshana part was the one where he loves another girl, becomes violent etc. The worst part of the film but thankfully they don’t justify it, he comes back to normal and when he goes to Maya’s fathers’ death when he was about to patch up with Darshana, it was such a lovely juncture. As much as I didn’t want Maya to be a scapegoat for his problem, I wanted him to reunite with Darshana as well, but the director went one notch higher with that twist. And after his death he breaks up with her too, so it was perfect.

The tamil boy Selva’s (Kalesh Ramanand) part didn’t really attach to the story. It would’ve been good may be as a standalone part but just to have an inspiring part and on top of it make that character die was little farfetched, it didn’t stick to the movie. Just like the search for kid part in ‘Varanam Ayiram’ or may be Malar’s memory loss in ‘Premam’. Both, especially the latter was a very convenient way to end that chapter. But thanks to Nivin Pauly, the crying scene was out of the world so none could complaint on it.

Similarly, the long hair, trekking, photography, food vlogging etc. were like a template which everyone has begun to do nowadays, it was one of the mundane parts of the movie. In fact, the whole second half felt like a different movie. Kalyani didn’t have much to do, except for being nice. Wonder how she even agreed to do the part. I think from that point the director just decided to go the cuter way and make the film enjoyable. Not just does he get another beautiful girl, but they get married, have kids and all. Too many events in such short time, it felt like a YouTube video than a movie. For a movie which started this promising, it shouldn’t have been dealt this way.

And finally coming to Darshana. What a woman! And it’s not just that, how well was her character written. She is not one of the women who’s downright pretty, like a Kalyani in second half but such charm. Look at her transformation from a girl who jumps on her senior after her first night out with boyfriend to a girl who wears saree in front of her ex’s wife. That was some arc. If this movie had been titled ‘Darshana’, it would have ended up being a movie as great as ‘June’ but don’t know whether it was intentionally written the ‘Hridhayam’ way or was it tweaked for a star kid. If it was intentional, I’m not sure what to comment. I can only appreciate giving so much depth for a female lead in a hero centric movie but if its tweaked, it’s still a brilliant tweak instead of like tweaking ‘Manachitradalu’ to be made a Rajni film ‘chandramukhi’. This was done holistically or to put it better way, ‘sweetly’, a the trait which is missing in film nowadays.