REVIEW: VAASHI 

ONE WORD: A watchable courtroom drama with a good message. 

• Language: Malayalam

• RELEASE DATE: 17 June 2022. 

• DURATION: 02 Hours 08 Minutes. 

• DIRECTOR:Vishnu Raghav. 

• GENRE: Courtroom Drama. 

• STAR CAST: Tovino Thomas, Keerthy Suresh, Baiju Santosh, Anu Mohan, Kottayam Ramesh, G. Suresh Kumar, Nandu, Rony David Raj, Maya Menon, RJ Raghu and many more. 

• PRODUCTION COMPANIES:Revathy Kalamandhir. 

• STORY BY: Janiz Chacko Simon

• DISTRIBUTED BY: Urvashi Theatres and Remya Movies. 

• MUSIC DIRECTOR: Kailas Menon (Songs), Yakson and Neha (Background Score). 

• CINEMATOGRAPHY: Neil DCunha. 

• EDITOR: Arju Benn. 

• PRODUCED BY: G. Sureshkumar. 

        REVIEW BY ARUNJYOTHI R. 

What’s GOOD: 

1. Good decent direction. 

2. The performance of Tovino Thomas and Keerthy Suresh. 

3. The courtroom scenes. 

4. The message in the movie. 

5. Background score. 

6. Fair Dialogues. 

7. Cinematography.

8. Editing.

9. Satisfying Climax. 

What’s BAD: 

1. The storyline was predictable. 

2. Minute errors in the screenplay. 

3. Poor Songs. 

•Detail Explanation and In-depth REVIEW: 

What’s the Premise: 

Ebin (Tovino Thomas) and Madhavi (Keerthy Suresh) are two young lawyers who are friends and trying to get a break in their careers. Soon they will fall in love and will decide to marry each other. Both come from different religions but still, their families will agree to their marriage. Before the marriage, Ebin will be appointed as a public prosecutor due to the influence of his brother-in-law. Soon Ebin will be getting a crucial case but on the other hand, Madhavi will appear for the same case as the defence lawyer to fight against Ebin. The rest of the story unfolds how both of them conduct their case and also unfolds the relationship conflicts between Ebin and Madhavi. 

WON PLUS FACTORS: 

1: The thrilling moments that the movie offers inside the courtroom are engaging, here the effective making and the writing had helped the film to create an impact. The story written by Janiz Chacko Simon was great because his writing was crafted with the right components for a courtroom thriller. The premise of the story was promising and it was followed by many good unexpected thrilling encounters. The central characters brought in the story were successfully written and the writing had focused deeply on their profession and personal life. Here the writer had mixed the profession of central characters with the relationship so the problems occurring in the life of the hero and heroine were written out systematically. So the leading events happening in their life were neatly created so their love, attachment and conflict in their relationship were leading the story correctly in the right direction. When the story touches on the main theme the hero and heroine come face to face, from that moment onwards the story was arresting my attention to know the ultimate end. The courtroom arguments and the case trials were precisely written out by Janis Chacko Simon without losing depth. Also, the writer had avoided many regular cliches, the falling in love of the hero and heroine was only added in a limited time and here the writer is focused more on the actual subject rather than building their relationship. The climax was satisfying and the numerous events till the climax were matching to set a comfortable ending. So the debutant Janiz Chacko Simon as the story writer was impressive and I liked the way he treated the story. The strong message he pointed out also needs special mention but unfortunately the storyline was also having some minor issues and what’s that, you can see in the next paragraph. 

2: The screenplay by the director Vishnu. G. Raghav had both good and bad elements. Here let’s discuss the positive side, the first thing is instead of making a lag the screenplay had focused and tracked straight into the main subject. The Use of songs was brilliantly avoided which I felt was good, also the romantic scene at the beginning between Tovino Thomas and Keerthy Suresh was limited. Most of the writers use to focus unwantedly on the relationship, how they get into love, how their marriage is fixed, ceremonies etc these are the common regular factors which use to create lag. But here with a single song and through enough scenes, the screenplay had avoided the typical cliches. The family issues and the scenes of parenthood were also told when it was enough, those scenes were never brought unnecessarily so the flow of the screenplay maintained the right momentum without creating a diversion. The law scenes and the courtroom trials were written out flawlessly, so every scene which has the case trial will keep on hooking us, we will feel that we are witnessing a case inside a court. The conducting of the case and the arguments felt close to reality, as a viewer I was able to connect with the courtroom trials shown in the film. To inherit the consciousness of the audience into the case trials a strong writing was implemented in the screenplay because by hearing the arguments of the central characters a curiosity and proper eagerness will be brought into our mind so till the end I was deprived to know the final verdict. So here I can oppose that through the screenplay the writer was having an apparent intention to make the audience engage and he made it successfully but sadly not fully. How an advocate interacts with their client, how he/she captures the truth from their mouth and how he/she gives the hope were circled with many emotions and these emotions were stretched adequately in the screenplay. All these scenes in the film were wonderful to watch, and not just the emotions of the clients but the feelings and beliefs of an advocate were also portrayed suitably in the screenplay. So the screenplay was good at thrilling scenes and it had created enough moments but the issue of giving more detailed depth had caused some problems for the screenplay. 

3: The direction of Vishnu G Raghav was enjoyable, as a newcomer his way of filmmaking was impressive. Without making drag he had taken the movie straight into the main theme and the way he ministered to the core subject was filled with many pleasing moments. The world of law was confidently handled by him, and the atmosphere of a court was energetically brought into the screen. How to demonstrate a court, how the cases are produced and how it is conducted and how long will be the trials and how the verdict is made were solidly shot by the director and it showed his vision of the world of law. So his making style was moving according to the screenplay therefore the event that leads to the main theme and its followed incidents of courtroom scenes and the arguments of advocates and the ultimate verdict by the judge was making my viewing experience convincing. All the courtroom scenes don’t feel forced or dramatic, for the courtroom and trial scenes proper detailing was given and I felt convinced because of the logical explanations. 

4: The moments that the film and the script offers are many, the entire courtroom scene was crammed with many thrilling scenes. The arguments between the advocates played by Tovino Thomas and Keerthy Suresh will make us engage, here to give that experience the writers had implemented the script with good dialogues. All the dialogues inside the courtroom were brilliantly written by the writers, the words were having the power to draw our attention. The dialogues of arguments inside the court were engrossing with sharp words, all the conversations inside the court was having the meaningful words and eye-opening notes. The varied faces and hidden truth of society were told honestly through the dialogues, the adverse effect when the law is misused was presented finely and the words in that dialogue will enlighten everyone to know the different faces of our laws. 

5: Another plus factor of Vaashi is the performance of Tovino Thomas and Keerthy Suresh. Their dominating performance had this engaging, as advocates they were delivering a shining performance with authentic acting. Their chemistry had worked out well, all their combination scenes inside the court with the heated arguments were offering many thrilling moments. A husband and wife as advocates appearing for the same case was the making the film interesting and how Tovino Thomas and Keerthy Suresh handled the scenarios was making the film gripping.

NEGATIVE FLAW FACTORS: 

1: In the second half a fussy feel was felt and it was because the director had unwantedly given more importance to the relationship issues happening between the central characters. I felt like it was purposely added, it was needed for the ongoing situations but hasn’t coincided well. The ego-mind between the hero and heroine was needing more depth, those scenes didn’t gloom well and it was not having enough power to showcase the real emotions and related pains. In the second half, it’s a mix of courtroom scenes and relationship issues so a slight lag was rising but when the courtroom scene arrives those drag won’t be felt. 

2: The title ‘Vaashi’ means obstinacy, here the movie is all about the ‘vaashi’ of a male and female advocate, but I strongly doubt that the movie hasn’t shown its extremeness. The intransigence perspective was there but it could have been used more, the ego clash and stubbornness were not pumped at the right level. Therefore the film was giving the idea of how the movie is going to end. If the characters of Tovino Thomas and Keerthy Suresh were created with an inflexible attitude the movie could have been more exciting and it would have avoided the problems of predictability. 

3: The songs in the film were bad, I didn’t enjoy the songs on the big screen. The song “Yaathonum Parayathe” felt forceful and it had made the situation like an ordinary one and also the tunes were also not great. The song called ‘Rithuragam’ felt awful to my ear and the song and its visuals felt artificial. 

• HOW GOOD WAS THE PERFORMANCE:

Tovino Thomas and Keerthy Suresh had delivered a beautiful performance and both shared great chemistry. Among two of them, the performance of Tovino Thomas was the best, his attitude and the way he did the character were impressive. As an advocate, the mannerism which Tovino Thomas maintained was striking with many nice moments. The character ‘Ebin’ given for Tovino Thomas was challenging but he did it accurately and his entire performance as an advocate was impressive. The characteristic qualities of an advocate were genuinely handled by Tovino Thomas and till the movie ends he had perfectly held every single demanding quality and his whole performance was giving an engaging experience. His modulation in telling the dialogues and his courtroom arguments with Keerthy Suresh was brilliant. The intense looks and how an advocate cross-examine the witness were neatly done by Tovino Thomas, his arguments in the courtroom made me remember the style of a real advocate. The timing in delivering the dialogue was easily handled by Tovino Thomas, the style of performing in the court and how he represents his case went smoothly with clear-cut dialogues. All his dialogues at the court were fascinating and his ending note speech at the climax was awesome to hear, all his modulation and facial expressions at that moment were indicating his acting skills. Keerthy Suresh as Madhavi also scored well, her acting and the expressions depending on the situation were notable. She was fitting to do the role of an advocate and as a defence lawyer, she did her arguments and presented the case well. Keerthy Suresh was also great at telling the dialogues, her courtroom scenes were satisfying and the cross arguments with Tovino Thomas also had the right momentum. Her smile was cute and the outlook of an advocate matched her personality. The supporting roles of Baiju Santosh and Rony David Raj were fine, both did justice to their roles with a good performance. Anu Moham plays a crucial role and he did a decent job. 

• TECHNICAL ASPECTS: 

The technicality of this film was decent, nothing extraordinary to mention, all the work did have a proper quality. The cinematography was fine, Neil DCunha did a fine job, and the visuals of the courtroom were marching for the story well. The closeup shots used for capturing the emotions of the central character were amazing, their change of expression and behavioural change was captured nicely. The tensions which we can see in the face of the advocate, their confidence, their facial expression while presenting the case and their desperateness to win the case were apprehended brilliantly by the cinematographer Neil DCunha. So the cinematography was notable with good lighting and the work maintained the right flow. The editing by Arju Benn was normal, the editing was favourable without making mismatches and the transition of the scenes was also accurate. The courtroom sets felt authentic, and the premise was matching the atmosphere of a courtroom. The background score tuned by Neha and Yakson played a crucial role in the film, for all the important scenes the background score stood higher to make the proper impact. The background score in the courtroom scenes had synched to make an impact, and the argument scenes inside the court were balanced with appropriate background scores. Also, the relationship conflict scene between the central characters was fitted with some nice background score. 

• CONCLUSION:

So overall to conclude the movie ‘Vaashi’ has given me a satisfying experience and it’s a nice courtroom drama with thrilling moments. The message that the film discusses was also told genuinely and the performance of Tovino Thomas and Keerthy Suresh was impressive. The making of Vishnu G Raghav was good but the screenplay lacked depth and doesn’t do proper justice to the storyline. Still, the movie is good for a one-time watch, and I will recommend this film to those people who love to watch courtroom thrillers. 

• VERDICT: A WATCHABLE COURTROOM THRILLER. 

• RATING: 3.25/5