Varnyathil Aashanka

The third directorial venture of Sidharth Bharathan, Varnyathil Aashanka is an extremely engaging heist movie with abundant practical humor, interesting characterizations and a satiric tone. Written by Thrissur Gopalji this movie is a mixture of the conventional entertainment and modern day making style of keeping things natural and real.

The theme here revolves around the heist operation executed by a bunch of local thieves who were all looking for that big opportunity. In the city of Thrissur due to a political conflict, a party worker dies and predictably a Hartal was called. Varnyathil Aashanka shows us the execution of this plan and how certain unprecedented involvements took it in to an entirely different level.

It is rich in humor. We can find some similarities with Anil Radhakrishnan Menon’s Sapthamasree Thaskaraha:. But unlike that film Sidharth Bharathan’s movie has Thrissur Gopalji localizing it in a very convincing way. It is set in a rural area and the planning here is done by people who aren’t that sharp. So the film convincingly achieves the practicality part. And the fifth guy Dayanandan is the character that shapes this movie in to a satire. In a way Thrissur Gopalji conveys the truth that the biggest thieves are disguised as public servants. The first half of the film is invested in showing us the backdrop of each character. And out of the main five, four have an interconnected link which looked convincing and humorous. Dayanandan was the only character who was isolated from the gang and after his involvement in to the main operation things go interesting and hilarious.

It might be projected as a Kunchako Boban movie but once you finish the movie, it almost feels like a Suraj Venjaramood film. And it is mainly because of the way that character got isolated from others. Suraj mixes his subtle real acting style and his eccentric old style cleverly to create a very funny, yet cunningly real Dayanandan. Kunchako Boban manages to add roughness to Sivan, something we don’t usually see from him. Chemban Vinod Jose as the innocent thief and Manikandan Achari as the bike thief also performed nicely. Shine Tom Chacko was also fine. More than individual performances, it was the chemistry of the latter four that made an impact. Most of the actors who appeared in small roles were perfect for their characters.

Sidharth Bharathan who was successful in rendering comedy neatly in Chandrettan Evideya shows his caliber again in presenting practical humor. The screenplay has that connected feel in each subplot and because of that the storytelling has a flow. Only at the end of the operation, the film takes a pause. And within that phase it details each character and the smart moves we see in that part aren’t unreal. The last few minutes of the movie where it presents its quirky “message” could have been a little more satirical. It’s good, but a little bit was missing. Jayesh Mohan’s cinematography succeeds in keeping that real and tense mood of the film. The cuts were crisp making it edgy. The background score is minimal in most areas and was quite effective.

Varnyathil Aashanka is one movie you should definitely try. It may not be an out of the box theme or exceptional execution. But the 136 minutes of this movie is never boring and the screenplay completely invests in focusing on its final target. I enjoyed it.

Rating: 3.5/5

By Aswin Bharadwaj

Founder and editor of Lensmen Reviews.

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