Aby Review - Go Conquer Your Dreams Sky High

PUBLISHED DATE : 23/Feb/2017

Aby Review - Go Conquer Your Dreams Sky High

Aby Review - Go Conquer Your Dreams Sky High

Sethumadhavan


A young boy who is supposed to be a special child of sorts is distraught at seeing his mother pass away. During the funeral as everyone remains silent, the boy who has never managed to speak so far, so much so that even his folks had perceived him to be deaf and dumb for a while finally cries out “amme” (mother). This is from a scene straight out of Srikant Murali’s debut Malayalam feature film Aby which features Vineeth Sreenivasan in the titular role. This is a well written scene (written by Santhosh Echikkanam) which leaves a lump in your throat, making you feel for the boy Aby. Thankfully the scene remains well under control of the director; hence it avoids getting into an emotional overdrive. Another wonderful moment from the film involves Aby getting to win the attention of GK, an aviation expert and a failed entrepreneur. While this segment could have gone way too predictable, it’s nice to see the way a touch of humour has been bestowed to the same in the film.


Ad filmmaker Srikant Murali seemed to have found not just the right subject for making his feature film debut, he also appeared to have found the right people backing him in case of Aby. The producer Suvin K.Varkey and his team had earlier produced Kunjiramayanam (2015) earlier, a film which had Vineeth Sreenivasan playing one of the leads. Aby was in the news right from the time of the launch, initially for reports claiming that the film seemed to have the same story as that of the forthcoming Prithviraj starrer, Vimanam. Later the trailer of the film was quite well received, making people like me look forward to the film. So what is it that is unique about Aby and how has Vineeth Sreenivasan enacted the lead role? And has the producer managed to come up with a good entertainer, serving as a good follow up act to Kunjiramayanam? Well let’s find out the same soon.


Aby is the only child of his parents, his father Babychan (Sudheer Karamana) being an insurance agent, while his mother Clara (Vinitha Koshy) runs the household with a lot of struggle. Aby appears to be a little different from the other kids, his parents even wonder if their special child would actually ever get to speak. With Clara’s demise Babychan turns into a full blown alcoholic and he does not believe in Aby’s talent. Right from his formative years Aby has had only one dream, to fly. Though a school dropout, Aby is a gifted talent when it comes to anything scientific, gaining him a good share of both supporters and detractors. A turn of circumstances forces Aby to run away from home, in the process he goes on to meet GK, an aviation expert who is now seeking refuge in alcohol. Aby goes on to revive the spirit of entrepreneurship and love for flying in GK, getting to learn and update his knowledge in the field in the process. What happens from thereon, does Aby manage to finally realize his long cherished dream? The rest of the film tells us all that.


At the very outset Aby is quite an earnest tale, fairly straightforward and very much of the slice of life kind. Santhosh Echikkanam and Srikant Murali have kept the proceedings quite realistic and that helps quite a bit in enabling us to relate to the tale and the proceedings. Thankfully the film steers clear of emotional melodrama and it ends up being more or less inspirational. The songs by Bijibal and Jason K.Nair go with the flow of the film. The characters are well written and nearly all the relevant supporting characters have a distinct contribution to the tale. The casting choices are wonderful, certainly one of the main reasons as to why the film works by and large. Sudheer Karamana and Suraj Venjaramoodu play Babychan and Xavier, the fathers of Aby and Anumol wonderfully and contrast each other quite well. Vinitha Koshy as Clara is wonderful; unfortunately she does not get enough screen time in the film.


Aju Varghese as Kunjootan is efficient as always, while Bollywood actor Manish Choudhary does quite well as GK. Mareena Michael as Anumol, the childhood sweetheart of Aby is a natural alright. Vineeth Sreenivasan is someone who has mostly played light hearted characters or soft romantic roles so far, here he gets to do something quite different. As Aby he plays someone who speaks more with his body language than with dialogues and he seems to have pulled it off quite well. Vasudev who plays junior Aby is fantastic and leaves a strong impact. If there is any concern with the film per se then it is the predictability to the tale, if only something could have been to tackle the same. Also the film does seem to move at a languid pace for a part of its duration, making one long for the next bright moment to appear.


But all said and done Aby is a film that does manage to be engaging and makes us root for the protagonist. After all when a film makes us want to believe in our dreams, it can’t go too wrong is it not?

 

Bottomline:


Aby may not be something sensational in terms of a debut by director Srikant Murali, but it is a film with which he and his leading man Vineeth Sreenivasan manage to leave the desired impact.

 

Rating: 3/5

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