Kids with ADHD are something we frequently hear in modern-day parenting, and frankly, not many movies have tried to address that as part of the central conflict of the film. Thamar’s new film after 1001 Nunakal, Sarkeet, is one movie that tries to club this idea with the survival struggle of one person. While the movie’s premise is relatable, the drama that happens in the crucial second half would have worked to give us the emotionally overwhelming feel if the writing were a bit too intense. With the sparkly eyes of Asif Ali mostly doing the emotional heavy-lifting, Sarkeet is an engaging one-night story that needed a bit more refinement.
Balu and Stephy are a couple living in the Middle East, and they have a son named Jefforn, aka Jeppu, who has ADHD. Stephy is a nurse, and Balu works in finance. Their professional struggles, combined with the condition of their kid, are making the family life pretty difficult. Ameer, our protagonist, is this job-seeking young man who is hopelessly going for interviews after interviews. At one point, Ameer bumps into the life of Jeppu, and what we see here are the circumstances that led to it and the events that happened after it.
Thamar’s first movie, 1001 Nunakal, had a very sensible and raw depiction of human behaviour, and when you look at Sarkeet also, you can see that the character dynamics he shows on screen are very real. The tantrums of the kid, the effect of that on the parents, how it destabilizes a lot of things in the family, etc., are shown very realistically on screen. When it comes to the struggle of Ameer, you can see Thamar trying to present the struggles with less melodrama. The second half of the movie is where the “Sarkeet” (short trip) happens, and that is an area where I felt the film was a bit uneven. It has this huge responsibility of Ameer having an impact on this restless kid over a period of a few hours, and Thamar’s tools to create that change in him were slightly insufficient.
The writing of the movie is trying to create a lot of emotional setups and payoffs. But somewhere I felt the decision to go for certain tracks that are a bit more on the cheesier side, like the whole cinema episode or the stargazing, reduced the impact of the movie. When you see the bright smile on the face of Ameer at the very end of the film, I felt that smile deserved a more eventful night, which would have had a deeper impact on the lives of all the key characters. Govind Vasantha, who has done the music and background score for the movie, is following his signature style here, and he is someone who uses the violin so effectively to induce pain in the minds of the audience. When you look at that final hug and the soothing nature of some of the background scores, you sort of feel the emotional tightness was slightly missing in the writing.
The teary-eyed transformation of Asif Ali whenever the characters assigned to him go through an emotional turmoil is an extremely effective acting tool. In this movie, too, he uses that aspect of his acting effectively to make us feel the pain and relief of the character. Thamar is not a man of melodrama, and hence the actors are, in a way, restricted in expressing the character’s pain through the usual venting style we only see in films. Divya Prabha, who performed most parts of the character of Stephy neatly on screen, felt like struggling in that one shouting scene towards the climax, where the literal loudness of that character was a bit off-putting. Deepak Parambol as the short-tempered husband was fine in his character. Orhan, the boy who played the part of Jeppu, was a really good performer. It is a role that one can easily overdo. But Orhan was able to keep it within the meter.
Even though there are no loud background score-dramatic moments happening in this film, there is never a dull moment in this survival drama kind of a story. With the premise of ADHD and Gulf life struggles being relatable, Thamar is able to pull you into that world quickly. But the movie had taken up the challenge of creating a major relationship between two strangers in a matter of hours, and you might leave the theater with a feeling that that track could have been a bit more effective.
