Aarohanam Movie Review

by Raven

Famous character artist Lakshmy Ramakrishnan has forayed into direction with ‘Aarohanam’. Having a running length of just over 90 minutes, the movie managed to garner quite a bit of attention after Director K.Balachander, other people from film fraternity and popular critics hailed the film. The film definitely has noble intentions but it is not without flaws.

The Plot

Senthil (Veeresh), a school student and his sister Selvi (Jai Queheni) find their mom missing one day. In their quest for finding their mom Nirmala (Viji Chandrasekhar), their past is narrated to us. A lot of characters are introduced to us and most of them play a rather less significant role in the film. What happens to Nirmala forms the rest of the story.

Performances

Viji Chandrasekhar has definitely tried to give her best. But, one might feel that her character is not sketched convincingly. Has the director got carried away by the term ‘bipolar disorder’? The characterization of mother does not look relatable at all.

Jai Queheni looks promising in her short-lived role and she has emoted well. The rest of the cast do not have much scope for performance and are functional in their roles.

Technicalities

K is climbing up the ladder really fast. Yet again, he scores with his background score. Most of the songs travel along with the story while ‘Thappattam’ is a peppy club number. Kudos to K for his fresh music!

Cinematography by Shanmugasundaram is not really impressive. Many shots look amateurish and also devoid of proper lighting. Although the movie lasts only 92 minutes, the non-linear narration makes it look a lot lengthier. Editor Kishore could have avoided a lot of cuts, had the flow been linear.

Script and Direction - Lakshmy Ramakrishnan

Lakshmy Ramakrishnan’s attempt to make a film in 92 minutes is laudable and it might pave the way for more such experimental films in the future. She has handled a very sensitive subject and has tried earnestly to deliver a good film. On the flip side, the movie moves at a snail’s pace and few of the scenes look repetitive.

The narration moving back and forth continuously might definitely annoy you and the central character around which the movie revolves look unrealistic. One cannot really justify every act by saying ‘she is suffering from bipolar disorder’. Even if there is an attempt to justify, there should have been a proper build up to the whole plot. But, most of the acts look abrupt and unjustified.

Bottomline 

‘Aarohanam’ is a daring attempt but falls short of expectations. A little more care in sketching the central character would have taken the film to the next level.

Rating –