The latest film from Liju Thomaz, Anpodu Kanmani, is not offering anything refreshingly new to the audience. But the theme that it uses has the default advantage of having an emotional connection and relatability, as most of us may have heard about the emotional difficulties of couples who couldn’t conceive a baby. Written by Aneesh Koduvally, Anpodu Kanmani is that generic, new-age social critique built around the idea of fertility that becomes passable due to the rural characterizations and the guaranteed relatability.
So the movie opens with the wedding of our central characters, Nakulan and Shalini. Like most of the orthodox rural village, everyone starts to ask the couple about their plans to have a child. Gradually, this started to affect Shalini, and the regular jibes of people began to impact the overall family dynamics, including Shalini’s equation with her mother-in-law. We see how the couple tackled these situations in Anpodu Kanmani.
The movie is only two hours long, and for the majority part of that, it is sticking to the main theme. In terms of story, this one is like a spiritual spin-off of last year’s Sooraj Tom film Vishesham. If they had made Johny Antony play the same character in this movie as well, it could have been the world’s first fertility cinematic universe. While Vishesham was a movie that had characters tackling multiple layers of issues ranging from body shaming to delayed pregnancy, Anpodu Kanmani has no plans to make it a collection of trauma. The approach is to educate people about having a healthy sex life by making a mockery of old-school people who still can’t talk openly about sex.
The decision to keep the movie in a fun zone in order to communicate the main topic obviously leads to certain patches of comedy that are slightly forceful. I mean, these scenes would work when you see them as a clip on YouTube later, but as a segment of the movie, it doesn’t feel like a necessary chapter. Even the creation of certain melodramatic portions, like the insensitive behavior of the mother-in-law, feels a tad too dramatic in some areas. I believe Liju Thomaz and Aneesh Koduvally have set the old school, serial-viewing adults as their target audience, and hence, multiple facets, like the melodrama in scenes, the melodies of the songs, and even the visuals have that conventional feel.
Arjun Ashokan, in his usual style, performed the part of Nakulan, and he was able to crack the Vadakara slang decently. I kind of hated the way Nakulan acted extremely oblivious about what might be bothering his wife. But some men are like that, I guess. Anagha Narayanan got to do a character in a dialect that she was comfortable in, and the performance looked very organic because of that. Maala Parvathy was also fine as the emotionally insensitive, hyper-religious mother-in-law. Liju Thomaz has gone after actors who can pull off the slang in order to make the humor work, and while some of the influencer cameos worked in favor of the film, the Sreekanth Vettiyar track really stood out, and anybody could see that it was forcefully added to the story.
The final hurdle in the journey of Shalini and Nakulan to have a baby is perhaps the only unique element in the story here, and maybe that was the “true story” part, which the makers claimed during promotions. In a state where fertility clinics are being opened at every junction, there is definitely relevance for a movie like Anpodu Kanmani. We haven’t really had too many films that talked about this topic, and yet Anpodu Kanmani felt like a “typical” film. So, I hope the next director who comes up with the same theme will try to reinvent the storytelling.
Anpodu Kanmani is that generic, new-age social critique built around the idea of fertility that becomes passable due to the rural characterizations and the guaranteed relatability.
Green: Recommended Content
Orange: The In-Between Ones
Red: Not Recommended