The Malayalam movie Aarkkariyam was one of a different attempt in 2021 on how to scope out a genre-defining story telling. Uyare film fame Manu Ashokan second movie approaches this theme with much more intensity and raw impact. Its rich in emotion with a deft touch of suspense and drama. This one is very successful fusion of family drama and subtle semi-thriller elements. The story is a simple one, its about a moral drama of a father trying to bring closure to his daughters hit and run death case. A visit to his grandson home after a gap of 1 year changes some equation of his relationship with his near and dear ones. It's a cautionary tale of trauma navigation. The movie title was an apt one, as you watch the dynamics changes at every turn.
The human bonding takes the center stage with a riveting performance by Suraj and that is matched to a great extend by the other two main lead characters Tovino and Aishwarya. The story kept a tight focus on guilt and morality. The first half was superb and it took a thriller route but you will realize soon that its not what the makers intended, it's more about the how a particular incident impacts the life of 3 people and its a beautiful character study. The first half superbly maintain the tension and mystery. Though the second half is intense, there is no staged melodramatic scenes and its a honest attempt to display human fragile nature.
From a criticism stand point there were some blunt moments and few unwanted sequences which did not add much value and the flashbacks was bit confusing at times. Barring that i really enjoyed this guilt battle and human vulnerability show. The scale was small, the concentration is intense, and the result is surprisingly good. Once again the path to redemption is never an easy one.
Verdict - 3.5/5(A man's moral center)