Hey Jude Review: What’s life without some madness?

Sethumadhavan

One of the best scenes in Shyamaprasad’s latest Malayalam film Hey Jude does not feature either Nivin Pauly or Trisha Krishnan, the dynamic duo who are the main draws for the film. Finding Jude (Nivin Pauly) missing from home and having noticed a note written by him, his parents barge into Crystal’s (Trisha Krishnan) house, demanding an explanation from her father, Sebastian. Over the next few minutes as we see Sebastian take control and explain what the problem with Jude is and as to why things are not as bad as it sounds, there’s a gradual but clear difference seen in the body language and communication style exhibited by Jude’s parents, especially his father. This scene beautifully conveys an important message in a clear and practical manner, without an excessive usage of histrionics. It’s moments like these from the movie which stay with you well post the film gets over, a positive sign alright.

In perhaps what is his most audience friendly film so far, Shyama prasad talks to us about Jude; an Anglo-Indian youngster in Kochi who seemingly appears to be autistic of sorts. Jude prefers to live by his own set of rules and principles and is not very good at social interactions. His father Dominic (Siddique), a dealer of antiques fails to recognize Jude’s actual problem, attributing his son’s issues to be more a result of his laziness and lack of enterprising nature unlike his mother who is more practical and understanding. A death in the family takes Jude and his parents to Goa, where they come across Sebastian (Vijay Menon) and his daughter Crystal. What happens in the life of Jude from thereon is what the rest of the tale is all about.

The screenplay by Nirmal Sahadev and George Kanatt ensures that the proceedings are kept simple overall, while Shyamaprasad ensures that the execution on screen brings in audience engagement. The film has a subtle undercurrent of humour all throughout, despite the serious subject. It is good to see the aspect of mental health being discussed in a simple yet effective fashion, without making it look frivolous of sorts. While the humour does work largely it is also clear that the intensity that is witnessed in Shyamaprasad’s films usually is certainly missing over here. Even the characters take some time to register an impact, including that of the protagonist, Jude. And for that it’s most certainly Shyamaprasad who is responsible, an urge to meet with commercial success (after the not so good box office response to some of his films) perhaps being the reason for the same.

Girish Gangadharan’s cinematography is an asset to the film, capturing the sights of Goa in an interesting fashion. The songs (composed by Ouseppachan, M.Jayachandran, Gopi Sunder and Rahul Raj) aren’t spectacular but fit the requirement of the film pretty comfortably. The supporting cast contributes handsomely to the proceedings, Siddique and Neena Kurup as Jude’s parents and Vijay Menon as Crystal’s father are all impressive, especially Vijay Menon who has a blast playing the psychologist with an affinity to alcohol and cricket. Trisha makes a good entry into Malayalam cinema, doing good justice to the role of Crystal, the girl with unpredictable mood swings. Finally coming to NivinPauly, he appears a little stiff and a tad unsure initially but soon the clumsiness and the stiffness grows on us and appears natural as part of the character that he portrays.

Eventually Hey Jude goes on to turn out to be a film that’s pretty likeable & is bound to more or less keep you hooked to the happenings. It may not be a surprise if it even ends up as Shyamaprasad’s biggest commercial success as well, in a way a case of the objective being met.

Bottomline:

Hey Jude isn’t the best of Shyamaprasad but it’s a nice feel good film aided by good performances. This is worth an outing to the cinemas n case if you still have any doubts.

Rating: 3/5