Oruthee

The new VK Prakash film Oruthee, which marks the comeback of Navya Nair in a lead role after almost 8 years, is a passable thriller mainly due to the performance of its leading lady. Set in the backdrop of Ernakulam city, S Suresh Babu’s script has familiar beats, which makes the film less surprising. But what keeps you interested in the film is the relatability you feel in the reactions of Radhamani.

Radhamani is a conductor in KSWTD. She has two kids, and her husband is a graphic designer who is trying to get a job in the Middle East. One day when she tries to get some money through a gold mortgage, she comes to realize that the gold she bought doesn’t have the amount of gold it claims to have. And with the Jewellery denying her claims, Radhamani is clueless about what to do. How she deals with this situation is what we see in Oruthee.

When you look at the whole picture, you will know that the script does not have anything that one wouldn’t be able to guess. So VK Prakash makes sure that the viewer will get enough details about Radhamani in the first half an hour so that the audience will root for her. We see her taking care of her family, participating in mega Thiruvathira, keeping a watch on her under-construction house, etc. The character played by Vinayakan as SI Antony felt like a convenient tool for the writer to achieve a solution. Even the whole running sequence, which apparently happened in reality, felt like an added layer when they sensed that the situation wasn’t that complex.

As I already said, Navya Nair shines as the central character. From being a woman who takes care of the family to a clueless person who didn’t have any idea on tackling a situation, she transformed into Radhamani and made sure that she never slipped into the Balamani style of acting. Vinayakan gets to play a really different role from the usual ones he gets offered, and he was a convincing choice. Saiju Kurup, KPAC Lalitha, and Santhosh Keezhattur are the other major names in the star cast.

Even when the drama in the story had this outdated feel here and there, there are some interesting tweaks that worked for the film. Usually, in movies, when women get blamed by men calling them irresponsible and careless, they just hear all that in silence with a lot of tears. Here, in a scene when Saiju Kurup’s character blames Radhamani for not checking the quality of the food product, the reaction of her to that cracked me up, and it was a cliche breaker. Gopi Sunder’s score was on the typical side. The Thakara song and the situation in the movie weren’t really sharing the same pitch.

Most of the scripts by S Suresh Babu had this overtly vocal feel to them, with characters explaining their intent and situation to others. In the case of Oruthee, VK Prakash was able to bring down that explaining nature to an extent, and with Navya Nair giving her cent percent to the character, the film feels like a passable experience.