Aravindante athithikal (Aravindan's Guests) is a movie with a simple premise . . The story starts in 1996. Abandoned in Mookambika by his mother at a very young age, Aravindan(Vineeth Sreenivasan) is rescued by Madhavan (Sreenivasan) who runs a small lodge near mookambika temple .
Fast forward 20 years later Aravindan grows up to be do gooder, liked by all those around him and helps madhavan in running the lodge . He has taken a sort of pledge that he will not enter the temple until he meets his mother. There are some comedic scenes thrown in take the story forward (and to get us acquainted with the set of characters ) till the arrival of the heroine.
In comes Girija(Played with aplomb by Urvashi) along with her pretty daughter Varada (Nikhila Vimal) for performing Varada's dance arangettam at Mookambika temple . Our hero is so likeable that within minutes of knowing him Girija decides to cancel her hotel booking and decides to stay at his hotel.(are women so gullible ?).
She is also accompanied by her brother Venu (Prem Kumar after a long hiatus) who vehemently objects this sudden change of mind ( as any practical man would do) but is then persuaded by the offer of a "kuppi' (a poke at mallu obsession with liquor).
Some comic scenes follow ending in Varada getting hospitalized due to a sprained ankle .Doctor advises bed rest of two weeks and so she again ends up in the Aravindans lodge. Now the director has the task of making his heroine fall in love with the hero within this time frame. The clichéd scenes that follow leads finally (the director tries to convince us) for the Varada to fall head over heels in love with aravindan.
After knowing about Aravindans history Varada takes it upon herself to find out His mother . She gets help from the sketches made by him of his early memories(like in memento, congo ) and goes on an investigation .There are some red herrings thrown in to extend screen time like Janaki Subramanium (Sreejaya Nar) a danseuse, ala Shobhana.
Finally She tracks down the real mother of Aravindan and the movie is brought to an emotional but abrupt end.
The basic plot is nothing new . .Young child abandoned finally unites with mother. We had seen so many such movies in the 70s and 80s. The only thing new here is the location of Mookambika beautifully captured by the cinematographer . The movie also has some good songs by Vineeth.
Besides the plot lets discuss the other weak points of the movie(and there are so many). First is the screenplay. The dialogues of the movie are so weak. Even the crucial junctures in the movie including the climax are devoid of well written dialogues .Instead the director relies on soulful bgm (which gets annoying at times) to convey the emotions of the characters to the audience.
Next is the lead actor. Vineeth Sreenivasan is a multifaceted personality and I have nothing against him .He is even talented than his illustrious father. But let's face it , He is no hero material. He simply lacks the charisma to carry a movie on his own. Maybe that's why this movie is crowded with a bevy of character actors to cover for the hero's lack of screen presence.
Speaking of the cast, it's the only movie in recent years in which have seen such incredible waste of acting talent. The supporting cast is too impressive. We have sreenivasan ,kpac lalitha, urvashi,shanthi Krishna, vijayaraghavan, prem kumar, baiju, santosh keezhattoor and Devan. Sadly every one of them are underutilized as the director is too busy focusing on the love affair between the lead pair .. They are also forced to mouth the weak dialogues which hardly match their ability.
Only Urvashi and Aju Varghese makes the most of what was given to them and shines through bringing in much needed levity to an otherwise dull affair .
The movie will do well for sure as it targeted at a female audience and will surely leave them teary eyed at the end.
Deserves a one time watch .
