If you have been looking forward to to gain some priceless insights into the intricate mechanics of matrimony from Saji Surendran's debut film, you are likely to be let down. It's an unfortunate assortment of terrible choices, wasted chances and a real squander of a fine cast.
The day his final exams are over in college, Vivek (Jayasurya) decides that he wants to get married. He confesses to his closest mate Tresa (Samvrutha Sunil) that he has been having a tough time lately with his dreams, with almost every other gorgeous woman on and off the block making an appearance in them as his wife. Back home, he manages to convince his parents and ties the knot with a Radio jockey with an acid tongue, Kavya (Bhama) who's apprehension personified when it comes to her groom.
The hypothetical insinuation on the title that tops it up with a question mark at the end totally went over my head. I mean, they are very well married leaving no space around for those ifs and buts. Why the doubt then, why the speculation?
I have got some serious issues with films that claim to be all gung-ho with regard to modernism. All that talk about women's lib and more of that flows in profusion from the RJ's mouth before she bangs the phone down in disgust at the chauvinist boar at the other end. For a moment, we think the girl has got her head in the right place and then she gets married. And immediately turns out to be a green-eyed, nagging monster who can't bear to see her hubby dear chatting up with his bestest girl friend.
Almost all the assumptions that the film bases itself on are infantile. And most of the characters in it are still in their adolescence even though they are well past their prime. Take Vivek's parents for instance who have been estranged for a while, but who spend their miserable lives in opposite apartments, so that their lad would never know what it is to have separated parents. So you have the dad-son-in-extreme-ecstasy picture donning the living room in Flat 9A and mom-son-on-a-joyride pic hung up for good in Flat 9B. And sonny flitting between the apartments on alternate nights.
The most astonishing thing about the film is that there isn't a moment when your heart goes out to the pair-in-distress. How on earth does one sympathize with a moron who has done his MBA with not a clue as to how an onion looks like? If you ask me, the writer's attempts to make Vivek look like a lamb-on-a-hot-air-balloon crash-land disastrously. As it is, he comes across as an idiot who could very well do with some spanking that he had obviously missed out some time earlier on.
The final revelation that Vivek throws on Kavya's face along with yours, is a catastrophe. I have been trying to push myself into believing that the guy isn't as unripe as the whole world believes him to be. And then he goes about delivering on why have wanted to tie the knot in the first place, (that's a spoiler, if you could call it that) and boy, it was even funnier than all of Suraj's antics put together.
It's then that we realize that it was a grave mistake that the kid got married. Seriously, he ought to be in kindergarten, if his mind works like that at 22.
Saji Surendran's film looks picture perfect, if you steer your gaze away from the interiors that resemble playschools. It has been beautifully shot, and his eye for visual detail finds a noteworthy expression in the song sequences, which are undoubtedly among the best in recent years. Performances are pretty fine through out, though a script as this neither insists on spectacular feats nor extracts histrionic delights from its actors.
'Ivar Vivahitharayal' beats a dead horse for a good three hours, and appears rather dull despite all the happenings in it all the while. A knock-off on several triumphant marriage capers that have preceded it, it boasts neither of their sparkle nor shine.
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