Avarude Ravukal

Story telling in cinema becomes interesting when a director takes a convincing narrative style to tell a story. Sometimes they experiment with it and sometimes they choose the best suitable one. In the case of Avarude Ravukal, the second directorial venture of Shanil Mohammed who earlier co directed Philips and the Monkey pen, the treatment is a mix of experiment and conventional style and unfortunately that treatment can only make the film a tedious experience for the audience.

Ashiq is an aspiring actor who has come from a very remote village with big dreams. Sidharth is a lazy guy who is not interested in having a goal. Vijay is this trainer who is haunted by a regret that he doesn’t want to disclose to anyone. These three eventually became friends when they all became members of the same rented home along with its owner, an old man living alone. What the movie is trying to show is their individual stories and the influence of this old man on them.

First of all let me blame the screenplay for making the simple timeline that much complicated. The movie has all the characters having three phases. The one before they met each other, one during the time they were together and the final one where they have sorted out issues and are sort of clear about life. To be honest, it is very difficult to identify these phases as Avarude Ravukal goes back and forth in to all these phases of these three characters very irregularly. What Shanil is trying to portray on screen is the conflict of three people and the resolution of it. And the problem is that the buildup given to each person’s conflict is so much that by the time we reach the climax we will somewhat question the toughness of their conflict.

Shanil Mohammed’s direction style reminded me of the same style of Aneesh Anwar. Both these directors seem to love slow motion and melodrama. Having a style to convey something is okay. But there are areas in this movie where you won’t even find a legitimate reason for making some shots that slow. The only character conflict I found somewhat worthy of feeling sympathy is the one of Vijay. Even though that was also built up with unnecessary fuss, when compared to the self exploration of the other two characters, this one was much better. The character of Sidharth fails to make any sense and the character arch looks weird. The writing can’t really conceive the struggle of Ashiq as an actor. The cinematography follows this extensive slow motion pattern and I don’t really understand the reason why Shanil began some of the shots with the black and white tone. The edits were abrupt. Sankar Sharma’s songs are okay and I really loved the song featuring Vinay Forrt.

Asif Ali follows an over expressing sort of style to depict the character of Ashiq. The kind of unreal texture of that character doesn’t really attract you as the character he plays is of a struggling actor. Unni Mukundan once again fumbles with his dialogue delivery and Shanil has tried too much to make Sidharth an arrogant aimless guy. Vinay Forrt apparently succeeded in giving a bit more controlled performance. The artificiality level in his performance was very less. Nedumudi Venu was fine. The elaborate cast has names like Mukesh, Honey Rose, Lena and many others including a bunch of new faces.

Avarude Ravukal has an unnecessarily complicated narrative given to a self exploration theme. The movie is only two hours and eleven minutes long, but still it feels like a test of patience.

Rating: 2/5