Review for VELLAM:

•Language: MALAYALAM

•Duration: 153 Minutes.

•Genre: FAMILY DRAMA.

• REVIEW BY ARUNJYOTHI.R.VALIYAVEETIL.

•POSITIVES:

1: Direction.

2: Story, Screenplay and Dialogues.

3: Performance of actors.

4: Cinematography.

5: Editing.

•NEGATIVES:

1: Little Exaggeration on the climax.

2: Background score lacks depth.

•ONE WORD: Vellam is all about Jaysurya’s sterling performance, worth for a big time.

•DETAIL REVIEW:

Vellam tells about the story of Murali who is a drunkard and an irresponsible husband who doesn’t concern about his family. As an unemployed person to meet his daily drinking he uses to steal from his own home and makes cash by selling those items. Soon he is neglected by his wife, family and friends and he decides to quit his drinking habit. By the help from a distant friend he joins in a deaddiction hospital and starts to take treatment. Rest of the story portrays his determined fights to overcome his drinking habit.

Vellam is directed by Prajesh Sen who had previously directed Captain with Jayasurya who is once again back with the same hero. Prajesh himself writes the story and screenplay and Josekutty Madathil, Yedu Krishna, Ranjith Manambrakkat produces the film. The most interesting factor which I liked in the direction of Prajesh Sen is the effective and brilliant using of star cast especially our hero Jayasurya. He had amazingly given one of the career-best performance for Jayasurya, the implementation of how he had used Jayasurya’s unique talent is the real highlight, as a director he can be proud of himself for doing this spectacular job. The direction held by Prajesh was passionate and it was evident in the making expect the last 10 minutes and also at some part of the second half. The totality of the film is all about a drunkard so the life of this drunkard man was shown genuinely and every sort of things happening in the life of the protagonist was convincing without making any sort of confusions.

The competently writing of the story is a plus point which needs to be mentioned. Also, the crafted screenplay by Prajesh was good with many heart-touching moments. The simple story was written productively without losing its right path so the screenplay had also worked out according to the plot. The emotional moments that movie offers is something that can provoke, particularly for the people who has a drinking habit. The central character is facing various kind of desperate situations and those heartbreaking scenes were undertaken authentically and a realistic approach was given which will elicit viewers sympathy. The screenplay was filled with numerous kinds of emotions like love, betrayal, forgiveness, parenthood, friendship, inspiration etc and each of these was perpetrated brilliantly according to the plot and the making was also moving intensely, credits to the director Prajesh.

Like mentioned above I was not that much pleased by the last five minutes of the film, there is a big surprise and it was needed for a film like this but the way they had executed and shown was felt exaggerated, till then the movie was satisfying but the last few minutes of the film had changed the compete totality and suddenly went to another dimension, the same way which turned out to be like a cliche or even overdramatic. At that moment the writing held by Prajesh went flattened, he could have been written more convincingly, sadly the targeted impact was having less effect, looks like it had only worked out in paper while making the plot, not on the screen while directing. Some over dramatically scenes in the second half had also created a kind of lag which could have been avoided while making the screenplay.

Looking at the performance it’s all about Jayasura and his outstanding acting, no doubt it’s one of his career-best performance. I was speechless by seeing his acting, no he was living as the character Murali. The mannerism and nature which Jayasurya had undertaken for the character Murali was exceptional, pure soulful dedicated acting was given by him also throughout the film he makes it more appealing and engaging. His emotional scenes need to be specially mentioned, viewers will be contrived by his various emotions and can leave tears in our eyes. Like usual this time too he doesn’t commit any errors, what is called for a complete performance was provided by him, huge applause for all his effort. Samyuktha Menon pairing with Jayasura delivered an incredible performance, after her film Lilly I couldn’t see something challenging for her but this character had given her sufficient space to prove her best and she did give up an indeed performance. Her combination scene with Jayasurya was terrific and some powerful husband-wife relationship scene in the second half was fantastic to watch. Siddique as the doctor did a great job, the supporting character was safer in his hands and the qualities of a doctor were managed flawlessly, also some of the combination scene with Jayasurya was emotional. The other supporting characters like Sreelakshmi, Baiju Santosh, Santosh Keezhatoor and Babu Annur did total justice to their respective roles.

The music composed by Bijipal was excellent but the background score was mediocre felt like a usual musical pattern for a drama film. The song ‘Akashamayavale’ sung by Shahabaz Aman was melodious with his dominant voice and also the lyrics for it was strong to see the exact scene. The track ‘Oru Kuri Kandu Naam’ sung by Hari Narayanan was also impressive. The background score tuned by Bijpal was ordinary nothing great and for many strong scenes, his BGM doesn’t create the desired impact. The cinematography of Roby Varghese Raj was wonderful, there were many impressive frames and stunning camera movements. The opening shot itself was ideally taken and the lighting techniques he made for indoor scenes were nice also the close-up shots of Jayasurya’s several facial expressions and emotions were captured perfectly. The editing of Bijith Bala was good with fine cuts, mismatching issues were not felt in the viewing experience. The wardrobes created by the costume department was awesome especially for Jaysurya’s character and the sound design was also equally matching to set the premises.

So overall to conclude after 318 days a Malayalam film is releasing back to the theatre so fortunately, the film Vellam had given me an enjoyable experience in all manner. Jayasurya is back with a bang and the movie got every component to invite us back to the theatres, won’t disappoint anyone.

• VERDICT: WORTH WATCH

• RATING: 3.5/5.