Did Hridayam steal hearts?

Campus romance and friendship have always been a blockbuster combo for Malayalam movie industry. Several of our most cherished movie stars rose to fame and public appeal through such movies. Even Mohanlal inherited the name 'Lalettan' from a character of the same name in the campus movie 'Sarvakalashala', which created a turning point in his career. Kunchako Boban rode the wave through his hits after hits of campus movies, but hit a roadblock when people reached the saturation point in terms of campus movies. 

Similarly, 'Thattathin Marayathu' and 'Premam' were the genesis forces behind the 'boy next door' appeal of Nivin Pauly. But looking back at the most popular of Malayalam campus movies, one thing which becomes evident is that people always receive fresh themes with full heart and reject mere adaptations, stereotypes and cliches. That was why 'College Kumaran' and several campus movies of Kunchako Boban were commercial flops. All this shows that the basic formula of "Love + Friendship + Nostalgia + Action" that defines most campus movies, needn't always be a success formula.

The latest to the list of campus movies is 'Hridayam', by the iconic director Vineet Sreenivasan. Infact, the sole reason I watched the movie as soon as it got released was due to the public trust in his directorial skills. Vineet enjoys the aura of an all-rounder or a pathbreaker in the Malayalam movie industry. So when a content creator like him planned a movie with the newest star in Tinseltown, all were expecting a new chapter in the history of Malayalam campus movies. 

As far as the expectations of the public goes, most viewers are expressing a sense of pure bliss after watching the movie. The public verdict as well as that of the online analysts have unilaterally christened the movie as the first 2022 hit.  However, one must not forget that there still is a small minority of spectators who have a different opinion and who are now shunned as 'unromantic' and 'cringe-fringe elements' for speaking their hearts out. Unfortunately, I seem to find myself amongst that unpopular minority.

Disclaimer: As this is my maiden movie review, there are bound to be hasty conclusions, unapologetic remarks and faulty assertions. Feel free to raise your objections in the comment box. Also, as this is a review, please be informed that there might be spoilers, so reader discretion is advised. 

My dislike and disdain for the cinema is backed by the outdated treatment employed in the film. The whole point of the film seems to be the narration of the role played by campus life in forging and molding an individual while also suggesting the need to 'move on' from the past that you wished faded into oblivion. I felt as if the director couldn't connect with me in this story of a man's primary stage metamorphosis. 

The movie is a harbor of several recurring cliches and follows the same thread of how a campus story progresses. In the opening half you get to see the usual stuff, the hero -Arun Neelakandan- arriving at the college as a fresh off boat, the formation of bonds among the freshers, thug seniors who exercises their inherited right to bully their juniors, and then of course the epic first encounter with the heroine, who of course is a campus sweetheart and for whom the hero is then engaged in a chivalrous display apt for the order of chordates before his goon seniors.

Surprisingly the heroine is quick to accept his proposal and the usual lag created by the hero's attempts to impress her is almost absent, which I must say was a huge relief. Fortunately the film doesn't present any love triangles (so you wish). The break-up is presented as an anagnorisis, when Darshana learns of the hero's deceit. Thich creates an animosity between the two, culminating in a "who's the better Romeo" duel. The hero's sudden peripeteia seemed a bit hilarious to me, at this point Pranav's acting was indifferent rather than top notch. 

Another cliché was the introduction of a 'Deus ex Machina' in the form of a hardworking classmate,   Selva, who saves the hero from his horrid array of back-papers and in between the hero also gets moved by the latter's hardships rooted in poverty and gets a moment to reflect on his unorganized life, which the director hints as a major factor contributing towards his change in character, well you never can say no to a bit more of motivation can you. Even so, Kalesh Ramanand did some fine acting as Selva.

Again we see good actors like Aswat Lal being reduced to the role of a mere sidekick, who was entrusted to play the campus fool, his character could have had much refining. Though I found the 'comedy' of the sidekicks and the dumbo villain, whose squeaks of pain are expected to tickle your funny bone, appalling, it was the cliché overload due to the "unforseen" death of our padippi friend, and that too for the first time in history beneath a campus bus moving at 15 mph, that made me LOL. 

'The Great Indian Railways' are indeed an inseparable part of Indian romance movies. Why do the lovers always have to meet or part ways at the railway station? Perhaps the departing train is a visual metaphor for the already divorced hearts of our lovers! I can't seem to understand why directors always have to drag in such tropes.

It surprised me why talents like Vijayaraghavan were roped in for such insignificant roles. He is presented as an understanding father, a "been there, done that" figure, whose words are the lone source of solace for our devastated hero. Besides usual sermon, there is not much nuance in the father-son relationship. Perhaps the only new territory the director dared to venture into was to also screen the post-marriage life of our hero and as you guessed his new cute "kunjukutti paratheenathakal", which gives a new meaning to his life. Here too you see monotonously repetitive elements like the 'grandma hustle' over the rights to the baby and the usual nosy wife drama.

Another drawback was that the script didn't explore the possible shades of several characters. Darshana's character still remains underdeveloped at the end of the film, and one wonders why she failed to move on even as Arun did so. Aju Varghese's photographer role was just the usual-Aju-stuff and goofy acting, at this point it need be mentioned that the wedding photoshoot comedy scenes were very pathetic. Akil Sathyan, played by Arun Kurian was a totally unnecessary character element with no significance as such in the plot. Both the female leads Kalyani Priyadarshan and Darshana Rajendran did some reasonably good acting. Johny Antony's family-man roles have started to become tiring. However, Vishak Nair gave us some good acting moments in his brief cameo.

To me the film was a mere collage of themes and motifs that I have already been exposed to in the other campus as well as the so called 'family' movies. It was not a fresh and witty retelling of the campus experience and neither is it distinguishable from many other such movies. The only 'nostalgic' element in the movie for me was the resurface of Merryland Studios into Malayalam cinema! The biggest strength of the film were the beautiful songs which were seamlessly woven into the storyline.

 It should be best for me to pause here as I don't wish to bore my readers of the boredom I faced while at the theatre. This was not an attempt to degrade the movie, just an open review, an alternate reading.

That's all folks!