Our hero is almost at the prime of goodness here. He is an orphan, he loves everyone, he takes care of everyone, he doesn’t show his sadness on his face and the heroine here falls for him simply for all those qualities. All these script elements are pretty much the favourite ingredients of an old school movie buff. But where M Mohanan succeeds is in soaking it with humour and less cheesy sentiments. The ultimate feel one gets at the end of Aravindante Athidhikal is a positive one.
Aravindan is a guy in the mid twenties who is working in a home stay like hotel in Uduppi near Mookambika temple. He is an orphan who hopes one day his mother will come and see him. A girl who came there along with her family becomes a close friend of Aravindan and the movie is about her attempt to find the happiness Aravindan was looking for, his mother.
If you look at the career graph of M Mohanan, post Kadha Parayumbol, the graph was on the downside. In that graph which was going down, Aravindante Athidhikal is a spike that almost gets him back to the Manikkyakkallu zone. Manikkyakkallu wasn’t a great film as far as freshness of story was concerned. The goodness quotient was on the higher side and yet most people enjoyed it because of various factors. Aravindante Athidhikal in a way provides similar feel. Good humour is there, sentiments are there and the presentation here won’t make you restless.
Vineeth Sreenivasan is not a great actor if you look at his range and here the character of Aravindan is somewhat within his safe zone. There are bits in the movie where the character has to express emotional shades and the underplaying nature of the character helps the performance. Nikhila Vimal who was last seen in Love 24*7 opposite Dileep delivers a really impressive performance. Sreenivasan is mainly there only for the curiosity factor of seeing the father and son on screen. Urvashi was terrific in her role with comedy getting delivered effortlessly. Aju Varghese and Bijukuttan chip in with valuable contribution to the humour. KPAC Lalitha, Sreejaya, Shanthi Krishna, Prem Kumar, Vijayaraghavan and a few more in the cast did their part neatly.
Cheesiness and melodrama were something that terribly affected M Mohanan films lately. My God was almost an unbearable preachy film. It seems like the director has realized the importance of an effective presentation rather than hanging on to the justification of being a “good story”. He has reduced melodrama considerably and the less verbal drama has a good impact. The visuals are pleasing. Songs add more feel to the movie and I loved the way that hugging scene towards the end was edited and performed.
On a story level, Aravindante Athidhikal has a lot of similarities with films that have come before. But the presentation is cheerful and somewhat subtle. That makes it eligible for the title of a feel good movie.
Rating: 3/5
Aravindante Athidhikal has a lot of similarities with films that have come before. But the presentation is cheerful and somewhat subtle. That makes it eligible for the title of a feel good movie.
Green: Recommended Content
Orange: The In-Between Ones
Red: Not Recommended
