Arike

Shyama Prasad’s Arike is an emotional journey through the reality of modern day romance. A story of three people who has different views about romance. The only problem Arike has is that the class of audience who can feel the movies soul will be limited.

The story moves on with three protagonists. Shantanu a college lecturer, Kalpana: Shantanu’s lover and Anuradha , Shantanu’s collegue and Kalpana’s best friend. Shantanu is a romantic person who loves literature and madly loves Kalpana. Kalpana is a modern day girl with a dont care attitude. Anuradha is a girl who has no faith in true romance because of her past experience. Anuradha is helping Kalpana and Shantanu in every possible way to live a life together. She is doing that not just for their happiness, but to get back that faith in romance which she lost. The good thing about Arike is that it goes through a practical narrative. Never goes to a too much filmy line.

The emotions of different dimensions are addressed very nicely. The worries of a father, the tension of a mother, the innocence of a lover, the loneliness of a female and the pathetic greedy and selfish human mind set to go after the best and throw away the rest.

There are some memorable dialogues and scenes through which Shyamaprasad conveys the ideologies about personal freedom, real romance and finding the real love of your life. The Guruji sequence, canteen scene with Mamta and Dileep and the climax sequence are really nice thoughts.
Performance wise everyone delivers a memorable performance. Dileep portrayed the role of shy and innocent role of Shanthanu. It was really nice to see him doing a character of substance after the lame fancy dress in Mayamohini. Samvritha did complete justice to Kalpana. Mamtha delivered a descent outing. But the sync sound gave some trouble to her dialog delivery. Vineeth did his part convincingly. Innocent and Urmila Unni also showed their experience.

In the back end, Shyamaprasad has made a beautiful interpretation of modern day romance. Apart from some technical compromises, the direction was good. The script is convincing. It showed some distractions at the earlier portions of the second half. The narration went to a chapter style in those portions. Cinematography was fine. Sync sound department deserves a special mention for an improved performance when compared to Loud Speaker. The first accident scene was really good. But the execution of the second accident scene was below average. It never really created an impact on the minds of the audience.

It will be tough for every one to digest this movie. Its a story that goes to another dimension of romance which our industry is not that familiar with. My rating is 3.5/5. Best wishes in getting the right feel.