Adhyarathri

Adhyarathri is a very simplistic entertainer format comedy that deals with the importance of woman’s consent in an important event like marriage. While the film isn’t achieving anything in particular in terms of craft or scripting, this 129 minutes long movie is never really an annoyance. Biju Menon is in that Vellimoonga zone of comedy and thus you get to experience a typical movie that is passable and not so memorable.

Manoharan is the all in all wedding broker of Mullakkara. He takes care of all the responsibilities in a wedding function and there is a reason why he ended up in this career. So at one point, he fixes one top-notch marriage relationship for this girl named Aswathy for whom he is a father-like figure. Aswathy’s relationship with another boy puts Manoharan in a very difficult situation as he was an ardent advocate of arranged marriage. How he handles this particular situation is the story of Adhyarathri.

As a story, the movie’s safe zone factor and the negative is the simplistic nature of the content. You have a hero who is strictly against love marriage and relationships, changing his mind over a course of events. In the first half, the film is pretty much on the okay terrain. But when it comes to the second half, everything becomes a bit forced. The usual way of complicating things by not communicating things properly is happening here also. Yes, I agree with the fact that this miscommunication is a must for the narrative but the script and the making fails in making us believe that this was natural. In the second half, the movie stretches itself unnecessarily and towards the end, it is in a hurry to wrap up everything. There are no major takeaways here and you can somewhat guess how they will balance everything in the end.

As I said, Biju Menon is simply repeating Mamachan and this time the costume is more on the glossy side. Even if it is a repeat version of the Vellimoonga character, the performance is never boring. Aju Varghese gets a character that has some changes from his usual hero’s sidekick character. Anaswara Rajan is fine when you look at the pitch of the drama in the movie. Manoj Guinness is a relief with his typical mumbling comedy.  Sarjano Khalid has this stiff face throughout the film. Pauly Valsan, Sree Lakshmi, Vijayaraghavan, Biju Sopanam, Anu Sithara etc are the other known faces here.

As a director, Jibu Jacob goes back to the tone and texture he used for Vellimoonga. But the issue is that the content isn’t appealing. Sharis and Jebin, who previously scripted Queen (not a personal favorite) are not trying to make the movie creatively unique. Apart from the initial establishment of Manoharan being a hater of love marriage, there is no real attempt here to make us feel that we are seeing a fresh premise. In the second half, the movie is purposefully delaying its designated destination which is very evident by the time we reach the interval. The music is just about okay and the visuals are fine.

There is nothing problematic or extremely bad about Adhyarathri. Adhyarathri is way too simple and usual. It’s been a few hours since I finished watching this movie and even though I have giggled for a few wits in the screenplay, I am struggling to remember at least one of them. I don’t have anything against the movie, but there is nothing in it to make it a recommendable one.

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