POPCORN REVIEWSS

Written by Akhil Sathyan, Sarvam Maya literally stands for Illusion being present everywhere around. And this little metaphor seeps into the interpersonal relationships of Prabha too. Much like all men who have built invisible walls around them, Prabha has done the exact same thing with his father, much like how his father may have for him too. There is a distance in their relationship, something that you see at the start when Prabha chooses to stay with his neighbour uncle and a close associate of his father, rather than straight up with his father. Even when Prabha runs out of money, you see him being reluctant in asking for money from his father – instead opting to turn a priest with his cousin Rupesh (Aju Varghese) – the very thing that he has been escaping from all his life. Prabha is diligent with his ‘job’ of a priest but it is only to earn a quick buck – this, until an exorcism at a household later, he is acquainted with a ghost called ‘Delulu’ (Riya Shibu), that triggers a series of unexpected incidents for Prabha.

The drama here can be perceived as a coming of age story, given how much of the answers to the suppressed feelings of Prabha is connected to his new-found equation with Delulu. The tone remains indifferent at the start, and deliberately so. Almost perceived as a horror-comedy, the lighter tones of the drama coincide with the personality of Delulu, who is seemingly a distant cousin of the friendly neighbourhood ghost Casper. Much like most spirits, her soul lacks closure – being unable to recall her real name or her identity, but her undertones remain warm and fuzzy whilst also generating humour in the form of a ghost who also ‘gets scared’.

Much of the dynamics in the drama revolves around the equation that Prabha shares with Delulu. In a moving scene, you see Delulu (invisible to everyone but Prabha) help Prabha out during a guitarist audition sequence – something that would also tell us that she may have been a musician when alive. In another, you see her coaxing Prabha to woo a fellow artist manager Saadhya (Preity Mukhundhan). And finally, Delulu also acts as a bridge between Prabha and his father in what has got to be one of my favourite scenes in the film. The subtext of it can be compared to a therapy session that one would take with a therapist – another form of ‘invisible’ energy that is stuck inside you. So when a character exclaims that God is within each one of us, it all makes sense from a spiritual standpoint.

The drama does have a few rough edges wherein I could feel the writer striving to hard to inculcate laughter or emotions. For instance, the portion involving people around Prabha often acting surprised when they see him blabbering in white space (with Delulu invisible to everyone but the protagonist) does meet with a few laughs initially but soon runs out of steam, given how often the gag was repeated. Even the gentle manoeuvres in the narrative seem slightly convenient from the writing standpoint – be it Prabha’s tryst with a music director who is irritated at first but later impressed by him in the same scene. Or the convenience with which Saadhya falls in love with Prabha, something that was a result of just a couple of scenes.

So the proceedings are predictable in that sense and yet, the emotions tend to paper over some of the cracks in the screenplay. For instance, the flashback sequence (which by the way could have been brought in much earlier in the screenplay) is filled with pure emotions that were enough to well up my eyes. In the same breath, the concept of the physical and the meta-physical being one – or rather the latter being a bridge between the two worlds is deftly touched upon as well. I liked how the finale dealt with the topic of closure – something that was gentle, although I wished that it was fleshed a little better. Nevertheless, the emotions are pure, and enough to gently tug the strings of your heart – something that made me overlook a few flaws in the writing and execution.