Mili

Success of Mili is in how it succeeded in depicting the title character’s inferiority. With his directional standards Rajesh Pillai has done a really good effort to give life to the character Mili written by Mahesh Narayanan. However, how much it will influence you and inspire you is something that is questionable. For me that was the downside of this simple emotional story, which apparently was never discussed in Malayalam cinema.

Mili is that moody mysterious girl who just can’t sync with most of the girls of her age. Always lost in thoughts and depressed over the things happening around her, she is someone who sympathises for herself. She doesn’t try much to make life more beautiful and at one point, she is forced to do something out of her comfort zone. How the very sensitive character of Mili tackles this uncomfortable phase of her life is what this movie narrating to us.

As I said, with very less chaos and absolutely no head aching dramas Rajesh Pillai has visualized the character of Mili. Very easily the audience will sense the kind of loneliness she faces and the kind of desperations she has. The second half of the movie is the one were Mili transforms to be a better human being who has a goal. Well the canvas of the achievement being small isn’t really a problem, but the depth of struggle and the effort to overcome that struggle should have been more impactful. And may be because of that, the crowd response to that climax speech wasn’t that overwhelming.

Amala Paul Vijay (her new screen name) has done an impressive job in portraying the character of Mili. The sadness, the happiness that peak through the small slit and the frustrations were nicely handled by the actress. If I am not wrong, the actress dubbed for the character and it just gave more natural feel to the introvert nature of Mili.   Nivin Pauly did his character with ease and I think he is the most rapidly growing actor in the present industry. A whole lot of female characters are in the movie. Praveena, Shamna Kasim, Sija Rose, Sanusha, Ambika etc. are there in the cast with meaty characters. I liked the casting for Mili’s childhood. Even though there were a lot of characters in Traffic, the one actor who made me cry was Mr. Sai Kumar and when it comes to Mili, he again delivers a powerful performance as a father who is in grief for not being a caring one.

Rajesh Pillai has succeeded in creating a very real feel to the movie. Often we get to see inspiring movies having some over the top drama which we find unrealistic. With Mili, there is very less scope for audience to blame the movie for being unreal. The problem is basically with the resurrection plan of the script. The victory of the character surely is a happy thing, but the path taken to show it to us is less difficult and somewhat a predictable one. Also the movie lacked solid dialogues and it is a serious minus point as the theme of the film is an inspirational one. The cinematography was nice and the edits were also good. Music is already a hit and it suits the movie. Background score was slightly excessive.

Overall Mili is a good feel good movie. Those who know about their introvert nature should try to watch this one as it could turn out to be a chance to see you on screen. Appreciating the effective making and solid performances, the rating for Rajesh Pillai’s Mili is 3/5. Simple and humble.