Autorickshawkarante Bharya, which marks the debut of writer M Mukundan as a scriptwriter, is a mediocre movie with outdated sensibilities. With the kind of writing that has stereotypical characters and cheesy plot points, Autorickshawkarante Bharya almost becomes a time travel experience as every formula they have applied was last seen nearly 10 or 20 years back.
Sajeevan is a native of Mahe, and he has an Autorickshaw. But his laziness never really helped him in thriving in that job. Sajeevan married Radhika, a graduate who wanted a lot from life. Very soon into the marriage, Radhika realizes that her husband’s laziness needs to be fixed at the earliest. What she did for that and what all were the repercussions of that in their family life is what we see in Autorickshawkarante Bharya.
The writing and direction are the basic things that need to be good in a film in order to connect with the audience. In the case of Autorickshawkarante Bharya, both these departments are not at all bothered about the evolution that has happened to Malayalam cinema. The filmmaking has reached a point where things are communicated minimally, and Harikumar is applying the same old melodramatic treatment to convey things. Even when it comes to characterizations, there is no effort to make them look real.
Regarding performance, I wouldn’t say Radhika is a challenging character for someone like Ann Augustine, who has performed complex characters in movies like Artist. And frankly, half the effort seems to be in cracking the dialect, and if it wasnt dubbed, I think Ann has done a good job in getting the slang correctly. Sajeevan, the character played by Suraj Venjaramood, acts more like a caricature, and that takes out any possible traces of life from the narrative. Janardhanan is there in his usual loud style. Swasika, Manohari Joy, Neena Kurup, Kailash, etc., are the other major names in the cast.
Harikumar’s filmmaking sensibilities are struggling to present the movie refreshingly. The way the film slips into a wedding song in the first 10 minutes clearly gives the audience the red flag that something heavily outdated is coming their way. M Mukundan’s scripting, which has radio drama-like dialogues, only worsens the movie. It is kind of sad that even a writer like him is still looking at a woman as someone who fixes her husband. After fixing the central conflict at the midway point of the second half, Autorickshawkarante Bharya runs out of conflicts and decides to add another emotional block for Radhika in the most cliched way. Despite all this, the movie had a very minimal runtime of 113 minutes, which pretty much sums up how weak the writing is.
Autorickshawkarante Bharya is a lazy drama that things reaching from point A to point B is enough for a story to be film-worthy. From weak writing and halfhearted making to unenthusiastic performances, you sit through this movie with a poker face.
From weak writing and halfhearted making to unenthusiastic performances, you sit through this movie with a poker face.
Green: Recommended Content
Orange: The In-Between Ones
Red: Not Recommended
