Ayalvaashi
Introduction
Onto the second release of the day and it is raining Malayalam films! With that, I finished watching the last leftover from the weekend, the new Malayalam film Ayalvaashi which is streaming on Netflix. The vibe of the film was another one of those feel good comedies and I was hoping that it would be another Pookkaalam, a film that I had really enjoyed in the genre. The tricky proposition for a feel good comedy is that the one-liner plot may not always guarantee you with the intended moments. The screenplay has to with sharp and create those moments of affection. That said, does Ayalvaashi manage to impress, lets find out.
Story & Screenplay
Ayalvaashi follows the story of a feud between neighbours who are very close to each other, following a trivial incident. The premise of the story is interesting but it doesn’t quite have the meat to be churned out into a full length feature film. And this is because the plot itself is so thin that everything else turns up to be uneventful. The screenplay standing at a shade above 100 minutes just goes around in circles that had me distracted right throughout.
The drama does open with the introduction of the protagonist and his friends preparing and serving food at a wedding. His neighbour soon enters the arena and you can almost sense a warm bond between the two. You briefly get to know about their personal lives and their equations with members of their family. Up until, a conflict is introduced from which point the slide begins. And this is primarily because the conflict in itself is so trivial and as a viewer you didn’t think the need to give it so much importance. The ‘fight’ over that particular conflict is also not as intense to create as sort of an impact. It is flat as it should be!
The issue here does lie with the writing which never really creates a sense of curiosity. As a result, even the humour is a bit of a hit and a miss and the jokes don’t quite land. The proceedings are largely uneventful and they just go round and round in circles as opposed to creating moments of intrigue. Even the creative decision to unravel the mystery behind the ‘conflict’ doesn’t quite evoke any sentiments nor does it have enough meat to sustain your attention. I was barely going through the motions while watching this drama which was unlike the one that you would associate with the Malayalam film.
After beating by the bush, the final act does throw in multiple twists which are decent but did not have a payback. This is because sufficient amount of time was not invested in establishing the character dynamics at the very beginning. Had there been a sense of world building enough for the viewers to be invested in the characters, the emotions at the end may have worked. But that doesn’t happen here. The final twist is the only scene that had me smiling and the drama did need more of that quirky humour in its narrative. Overall, the screenplay here is wafer thin and doesn’t quite hold your attention.
Dialogues, Music & Direction
The dialogues are alright but nothing much to shout about. The music and the BGM are good and they were atleast trying to make the drama work. The cinematography was excellent and I did like how food was used as an object of scene transition. Director Irshad Parari does try to enhance the drama wherein I could see some good skills in play. Yet, the writing is so thin that it was only so much he could do to lift the drama.
Performances
The performances are pretty good here. Nikhila Vimal as Celine and Lijomol Jose as Kuttimalu have their moments to shine. Naslen as Pachu is sincere and earnest. Binu Pappu is excellent as Benny and atleast tries to infuse elements of humour in his character. Soubin Shahir as Thaju also is in fine form by being well restrained and quite brilliant in his act. But no actor can rise above the script, a saying by Dilip Kumar that does come true here!
Conclusion
Ayalvaashi is an insipid comedy with a wafer thin storyline that fails to impress. Available on Netflix.