The basic premise of director M Mohanan's Aravindante Athidhikal is not only flawed but one that is cliched, which ultimately takes most of the fun out of his over-dramatic concoction. Vineeth Sreenivasan plays an orphaned young man who runs a motel for his guardian (Sreenivasan) and does petty jobs to earn a living. The fact that his mother left him at the age of 5 still hurts him, unless a woman (Nikhila Vimal), a dancer, enters his life. And that entrance is what makes Aravindante Athidhikal slip into a fantastical territory that inches away and away from realism. The chemistry between these two characters is as unnatural as the mythological undertones in the film. For a moment, it almost felt like I was watching the film inside a temple, surrounded by like-minded pilgrims who would die for their beloved idol but won't bat an eye if a young kid roams around crying for his mum. There is occasional humor in Aravindante Athidhikal that can make you chuckle, thanks to a surprisingly chaming Urvashi, but Vimal's annoying character will compensate for it. Cast performance is generally good, with typecast Aju Varghese, VIjay Raghavan, and Sreenivasan too. That relationships are important is a subject director Anjali Menon recently played with in her 2018 film Koode with some finesse, but in here, the narrative that director Mohanan uses is a bland one. The screenplay has been written as if the audience already know what the exact story and timeline are and should assume things. I understand that fiction can take cinematic liberty, but in Aravindante Athidhikal, liberty is like the oxygen. It is a contrived drama about a story that has been sampled since at least the wheel was invented. Don't waste your time on this where Vineeth Sreeivasan not only plays the lead role but seems to sing repetitive songs throughout the 120-minute running time. TN.
Review of Aravindante Athidhikal
