August Club

Something difficult to convey is conveyed in a somewhat convincing way. That’s what I felt about director K B Venu’s August Club starring Rima Kallingal, Murali Gopi and Praveen Anidil. A theme that typically goes to steamy scenes and severe drama has been rendered in a better way.

The plot here revolves around Savithri, who is married to a corporate employee Nandagopan. Savithri, is a good chess player and also has a good taste in English literature. The movie goes into its soul with the arrival of a new member Shishir in August Club (where she plays Chess) who is quite brilliant in the game. How Savithri gets distracted emotionally by the unethical advices of her married friend and how she manages to recover from these mind games is what August Club basically about.

On the positive side, the performances and the chemistry of the cast is something that makes the movie interesting throughout the narrative. The abundant dialogues over physical pleasure between the characters aren’t that annoying considering what the makers are trying to convey. But the movie loses its focus significantly towards the middle portion where the script is stuck over the chess addict village and the transformation of the story to a conflict zone wasn’t that convincing.

On screen, Rima Kallingal once again proved her talent to carry any kind of role. She is comfortable and solid as the intellectual housewife. Murali Gopi gets a chance to portray a relatively cool character and his pseudo egoistic husband avatar is also a pleasing one. Praveen is really impressive as Shishir and he adds the required charm in to the character. Thilakan, Sukumari, Sunil Sukhada, K P S C Laliltha, Sasi Kalinga, Monisha Sagar, Ganapathy and many others are there in the cast who has given a good on screen performance.

In the technical side, direction of K B Venu is convincing and he has used his actors effectively. Script of Ananda Padmanabhan has that energy but as I mentioned earlier, some unwanted traversals are there towards the middle portion. The inclusion of Chess and perspectives explained through the game is impressive. The last quarter of the film where the dialogs are quite less demanded a little more clarity. The cinematography of Prathap Nair is quite nice and I really liked the way he captured the chess board. Background score and music by Bennet Veetraag is perfect for the theme.

Overall, August Club is a good attempt that has its flaws in conveying the emotional shades. I am giving it a 3/5. The A certified movie’s content is indeed suited for the current adult audience as it throws light on the ethical side in an engaging way.