Neena (Shobana), a middle aged woman, a single mother, brims with an infectious good cheer. She makes it effortless to discover the mid life in one’s life. It’s a joy to watch her gracefully take over it. Seeing Neena, on screen, makes one to realize that the minutes we have with us, right this moment, are very precious and should be put to use fro a fulfilling experience rather than indulging in the unrealistic musings. The comedy drama is set to revolve around the characters in an apartment complex and explores their lives.
Suresh Gopi enacts a character, Major Unnikrishnan, a lone wolf, who has been living in a shell. He knows no one and no one knows him except that he is someone who is quick to lose his temper and causes harm to others. When his anger issues hit its peak, he is resorted to a psychologist by his friend along with the prejudice that’s attached to it even when it is covered up with a cloak of lighthearted comedy. It subverts the societal conviction and the “normalcy” it defines which is heartening to see.
Kalyani Priyadharshan as Nikki debuts in her first Malayalam film and makes a mark with it. She is a young, brisky girl who is determined not to fall in love like her hopeless romantic mother, Neena. She tries to find herself a groom through matrimony sites and chooses them based on some parameters that aren’t necessarily the needed catalysts for someone who just looks for love. She doesn’t believe in love and extremely pragmatic. But she isn’t against love either. She marries two of her close friends who are in love and witness their wedding in register office. She just believes she isn’t lucky or destined to explore love as she fears she might end up like her divorced mother who married out of love. She presumes she might be thrown out of this vicious love cycle. Nikki is impertinent but her longing for love is not failed to capture.
There are various one-on-one scenes between the characters in the film. They are well-structured and act as the sole strength in the film. They are untarnished and flawless in the way how they are staged. An impeccable scene between Kalyani and Oorvashi in a restaurant heartrendingly moves. Oorvashi certainly leaves a mark in the film even if it is just for few minutes. And the one when Nikki and her mother Neena opens up with each other to resolve a conflict proves their yearning for love. And an yet another simple but effective scene between Neena and her elder brother about her newly found love in Major Unnikrishnan is revolting too.
Varane Avashyamund presents love in its blooming stage. The strength of the film lies in it when it doesn’t preach people to fall in love but just to look inward within us and bravely embrace what we feel. it doesn’t tell us to stick with the love no matter how the things might turn as it grows. Neena left the love, that she believed that would come with her till the end, as it wasn’t the same love anymore. The strength of the film is when it subtly devalues the customs and conventions. Above all, the film affirms that love is not a sin, it shouldn’t cost one’s peace. With its lyrical approach, its comical throwaway in a non-dramatic manner and even with its seemingly diluted outlook, the film leaves us with heartwarming influence.
The indifference in religion, class in the habitat is embraced but without any gimmicks. It doesn’t conjure the “hero” moments but shapes into some refreshing moments that enable us to see those characters on screen to conquer their fears and conflicts. Dulquer‘s character as Bipeesh is a dissociated character until the moment he gets ready to open up about his share of ordeal to Nikki. While the characters of Bipeesh and Nikki are shaping to discover themselves, Neena and the Major close in on their discovery of themselves. Be it the middle-age love or young love or the love that turns strangers into part of our life or the love that turns enemies into our friends, Varane Avashyamund resides in that positivity.
Varane Avashyamund is not without its flaws. It takes an awful lot of time to get closure among the characters it deals with. But this film is a must watch despite its loosely packed plot. It needs to be given its chance to influence us in the way it intended to be. The astonishingly mild situation comedy surprises brilliantly and induces hearty laughs.
