Director: Shamzu Zayba
Cast: Jacob Gregory, Anu Sithara, Shine Tom Chacko
Language: Malayalam
Shamzu Zayba’s Maniyarayile Ashokan is all about love. The movie is set in a town that extols love stories. The characters are always talking about love or trying to find love or getting out of love. Love for people and even plants. And Ashokan, the titular role played by Jacob Gregory is no exception. The Malayalam movie streaming in Netflix is a culmination of these ideas of love and how it evades Ashokan in his journey to find a family.
Ashokan wants a simple life with a family of his own. One that involves a wife who will give him companionship and two kids. But the road to finding love is not easy for Ashokan. His lack of confidence and his own feeling of inadequacy in his clerk job and physical stature make him vulnerable. Despite being a gentleman, Ashokan’s difficulties in his romantic life form the central plot of the film. He envies newly married couples and even his parents for having a relationship that he does not. His own love story meets with a tragic end, courtesy an unlucky horoscope, after which Ashokan goes to surprising lengths to satisfy his urges of finding a family. When his imaginations merge with reality, things get complicated and he finds help in the form of his friends to get out of the rut. Apart from feeling sorry for Ashokan’s character there is nothing much that can be felt throughout the film. The slow pace does not help and the characters around him do not seem to make much of a difference to the story. There are disjointed arcs that would have made for an interesting backstory. But these remain unexplored throughout the movie.
Ashokan’s friends have interesting roles in the film. But again, their roles and their stories seem underdeveloped. Shaiju (played by Shine Tom Chacko) and Ratheesh (acted by Krishna Shankar) have their own relationship battles to win in the movie. But there is no backstory to them, and it seems hard to invest in these characters without much to go on with. One thing that does stand out is the beautiful local scenery that runs throughout the film. The mellow Kerala backwaters and its green surroundings make for a refreshing watch. Music by Sreehari K. Nair is nice with dulcet tones.
The film is produced by Dulquer Salmaan’s Wayfarer films and Jacob Gregory. Even the surprise cameo by Dulquer and Nazriya do not seem to add much to the what the film sets out to achieve. It is surely nice to see Ashokan get what he wants in the end. But that is what the movie is as well… just nice.
Rating: 2/5
