Love, lust and smoking barrels
‘Varathan’ has one of the most generic, mundane of openings. It was one of the two Fahadh Faasil movies in my list which I had not heard of, but still added to my list. I’ll come up with the review of the next one in a couple of days. The opening of the movie being such a lull, made me think, that is the reason why it isn’t as famous as Fahadh Faasil’s other movies. But with time it slowly builds up and has a great ending. From a boring opening to a showy second act, it blasts open to an extremely satisfying third act. It could serve as a great guilty pleasure movie and satisfy all our senses in the end.
The first twenty minutes or so of the movie is such a lull, where you’re not sure what you’re watching, its so easy to even stop the movie and pass off after the first fifteen minutes. It has three songs, a needless Dubai setting and worst of romances. The events too are too mundane like Abi Mathew (Fahadh Faasil) losing the job, Priya Paul (Aishwarya Lekshmi) having a miscarriage and them two returning home. The flashback song was so needless. I can understand that all that was done to showcase their love but it totally doesn’t work. ‘Ishq’ is a similar movie where the first act had been done superbly. Even though it totally transforms into a different movie after that, the way the romance was shown keeps us longing for it.
The second act is all about built up. It’s of course showy. Amal Neerad is a showy guy. It worked in ‘Iyobinte Pustakam’ which too was a Fahadh Faasil one vs all movie. But the making of it was lovely. The built up suited it because the environment was like that. The period setting added charm to it. But here with just a resort, Amal Neerad couldn’t do much. He uses a typical thriller film template. It of course makes us glued to the screen. General audience wouldn’t find a fault. But cinematically it’s not such a great skill.
The villains do a decent job but instead of heavyweights, he had used young guns here. Arjun Ashokan was terrific in whatever little screen space he gets. The new gen actors like him, Sreenath Bhasi, Shane Nigam and all are such a pleasure to watch. Even though Sreenath Bhasi is my absolute favorite, whom even I thought would have done a great job if he had been in place of Fahadh Faasil, Arjun too is an actor who does so well without being so loud.
Even though the whole film is a lead to the final act, it could have been named differently. The title was too plain and simple. Just by the title the director makes it evident that he doesn’t care about others. But for such a movie to work, more than the fight, the reason for the fight is important. The reason here is Priya. The movie could have been even named as Priya. That would have served a whole lot of purpose. She was terrific in the role. Right from the time she says that she didn’t see heartbeat in her child to the climax where she shoots his abuser, she was fabulous. And a whole lot sexy too. Her costumes were brilliant. Except for one bad scene which brings in a transformation in Abi, other scenes were good.
Abi explodes in the climax. It would have been a total fanboy moment for all Fahadh Faasil fans out there. It’s a piece of cake for him which he does effortlessly. One should appreciate the fact he leaves the last bit of pleasure to Abi. It was so satisfying. Both the shot and her expression. But till the end, they don’t reveal what job he was doing, how he garnered all these Mission Impossible skills. It was still a “nee idhuku saripatu vara matae” setting. But it’s not a movie to criticize that deep, it’s a movie to watch with emotions. If it had to be criticized, there are lots to be done before the third act.
constantscribbles 