In the very beginning of the movie Spa, directed by Abrid Shine, we see a film director played by Sidharth Bharathan asking a spa employee about their life. He tells her he needs to know the troubles and traumas in her life because then only he will be able to create a three-act structure movie about spa employees with setup, conflict, and resolution. And the employee asks him why can’t you make a movie without any conflict. This whole scene is, in a way, Abrid Shine’s way of giving us a hint about the lack of structure he is about to follow for this movie. Spa is like a satiric anthology on the fake morality that exists in our society. While the humor and emotions in each track do manage to create a connection, we can see the director facing confusion on how to put an end to all these things.
The movie revolves around the operations of one particular spa in Kochi. Almost seven women are working there as therapists. Their customers range from scholars, businessmen, doctors, to even a daily wage laborer. What we see in Spa are the events that happen over a day in such a place.
If you look at Abrid Shine’s movies, Poomaram and Action Hero Biju, he has a liking for dismantling or questioning the structure. Poomaram was basically putting us in the middle of a youth festival, showing multiple tracks, without necessarily running after a particular conflict. In the first week of release, even Action Hero Biju struggled because a segment of the audience found it difficult to accept the movie’s structure, which shifts from tragedy to comedy without any heads-up. In Spa too, Abrid Shine is thinking differently, and he makes sure that this is not narrated as the tale of women who are doing it reluctantly. And that creative decision is helping the movie create some genuinely funny moments.
The movie is basically a satire that mocks the social double standards. All the men in this movie deep down know about their sexual feelings. However, the image issue in a society like ours is what makes them hide their details while entering the spa. One thing I really loved about the movie was the casting. There are these stereotypical characters associated with certain actors. Like Major Ravi will be a strict high-ranking police officer, or Srikanth Murali will be mostly a doctor or advocate. In the casting of the men in this movie, they are sort of following that pattern, but when the characters go inside the room, their character flips. And interestingly, people like Vineeth Thattil David and Vijay Menon, who are usually shown as associates of bad guys, are the ones who are nice to the women in that spa. The episodic nature of the movie with multiple men was fine, but on a writing level, Abrid Shine is finding it difficult to find closure, and hence he decides to give a spoofy ending to the movie where pretentious movie-making traits get roasted.
Shruthy Menon plays the part of the most in-demand and experienced therapist in that spa. Her reactions to each client had a different tone, and she performed them all nicely. Radhika Radhakrishnan gets to play the role of a therapist who transitions from being nice to someone who screams at her client. Sreeja Das also gets a character with a fairly good screentime. Even though the movie is from the perspective of these women working in that spa, in terms of performance scope, I would say Spa is offering better and more interesting roles to the male actors. Rahul Madhav was really good as the caricaturish egoistic actor. Dinesh Prabhakar’s Malayalam poet character with weird kinks was hilarious towards the end. Vineeth Thattil David gets to play the male character with the most screentime. And that character showed how even the “nicest” soul is oblivious about their dual standards when it comes to morality. The most entertaining and bravest performance, in my opinion, came from Srikanth Murali, and I don’t wish to reveal too much about that character. Major Ravi, Vijay Menon, Poojitha Menon, Prasanth Alexandar, Joji John, Ashwin Kumar, and Rajshri Deshpande are all part of the cast in minimal yet important roles.
The sudden increase in the number of spas in many parts of Kerala was in the news in the recent past, and we have seen reports about locals protesting and police conducting raids in these spaces. Abrid Shine sarcastically looks at the fundamental reasons why men in our society are forced to rely on “happy ending” services in spas. Spa is a movie that has a very loose structure, and it isn’t a film that will make you have a debate about its filmmaking once it is over. The movie is certified A, and the reason for that is the extra services you get at a spa, so viewer discretion is advised.
