Wish this world existed

There is a simplicity in approach to human relationships that makes Malayalam cinema endearing

The audience for mainstream Malayalam cinema in Bangalore has grown rapidly in the last couple of years. Films with the biggest of stars and the best feedback could garner only a few screens in what was assumed as localities with a sizeable Malayalee population. The shows were also at unearthly hours thanks to the notion that people from Kerala were more hard-working and would not skip work for a film. This has taken long considering Bangalore is one city that welcomes good cinema irrespective of language but then that was a major barrier. The average Bangalorean can speak a smattering for Hindi, Telugu and Tamil but Malayalam eluded them probably because there were few settlers from Kerala. Films starring Mohanlal and Mammooty drew crowds but failed to lure localites and the ones that did not have them in the cast were considered niche. It was just a matter of time. I don’t mind taking a little credit because I incessantly pestered Vinay who distributes most of the Malayalam films released here to urge producers into subtitling the films. That’s also because I can’t understand Malayalam. Sometimes when I rave about certain films Vinays response is ‘Vokay’ by their standards. He’s quick to add that what’s released in Bangalore is filtered and they make nearly as many bad movies as elsewhere which is some sort of consolation. ‘Varane Avashyamund’ marking Dulquer Salman’s debut as a producer has been released in nearly 30 screens across Bangalore .

There is a simplicity in approach to stories with the most complicated of equations in human relationships that makes Malayalam cinema endearing. It’s about a motley crowd of people inhabiting an apartment complex sharing relationships that seem impractical but justified by scenes which make us wish it were true. It’s unreal but not many want to pay and share woes of strangers onscreen. None of the characters have a bad bone in their body. It’s an apartment complex but the doors are always open and none seem to be in their own house most of the time.

The initial scenes appear awkward in the hands of debutante director Anoop Satyan, son of the redoubtable Satyan Antikad as he introduces a crowd of characters but gets hold of the reins when the emotional entanglements are established. There’s the heroine played by Kalyani Priyadarshan who’s bent upon having an arranged alliance probably because of an estranged father thanks to the physical abuse her mother suffered. Her mother is the elegant Shobana who teaches French, knows she’s beautiful and preens when her looks are praised. There’s the introverted former army Major (a superbly restrained Suresh Gopi) with anger management issues and Dulquer Salman who constantly wrestles with his much younger sibling and their serial actress guardian. The narration seems choppy because Anoop is keen on giving everyone quality screen time making some scenes seem abrupt. It’s the delicious nuggets that he dishes out be it about the food exchanged or the way tiny family niggles are dealt with that makes up. Set in Chennai, watch the landlady who draws Rangoli on her tenants doorsteps because she missed doing it when on a holiday!

There’s Dulquer who unleashes his serial star guardian when he’s refused a cooking gas connection and gets it in a jiffy. Take a note of the dig at TV soaps when eager neighbours are keen to know when a character will be bumped off and the lady says it’ll take one month of tantalizing scenes running up to it. There are tiny digs taken at the star wars between Ajit and Vijay too.

The most memorable scenes are between Kalyani and her prospective mother-in-law played by the amazing Urvashi. The scene where she reveals the marriage will not happen because her son turned out to be more like his father and Kalyani later mentioning to her mother that she missed her prospective mother-in-law more than the groom is touching.

We have Shobana, so she gets to dance in a scene and Suresh Gopi bashes a few baddies but the blossoming of their relationship is sensitively handled. It’s a longing for companionship rather than love and in a casting coup the pair does full justice. Suresh Gopi is a revelation. You know he’s overcome anger when a domestic help looks at the decorations on his army coat and exclaims he’d look like Kamal in ‘Vetaiyadu Vilayadu’ wearing it and he doesn’t react! Melodrama is anathema in Malayalam cinema and even the seemingly most explosive of scenes are handled with maturity rather than unnecessary outbursts. Dulquer is aware the plot is the hero and keeps barging into scenes periodically rather than hogging them. Kalyani is minimalistic .You can nitpick but ‘Varane Avashyamund’ has the kind of characters you’d like to meet and wish the world had more of them.

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