The question that whether Autorsha (Auto-Rickshaw) is a film celebrating the rickshaw drivers of Kerala or about a revenge saga involving its lead actor's (Anusree) character Anita remained unanswered after I completed watching it. The blend between the two is hardly cohesive, with director Sujith Vaasudev simply dividing his second feature film into the two sections (before and after interval) with a flashback element. For a moment, it even reminded me of Abrid Shine's fantastic police action drama Action Hero Biju (2016) but at least that one was entertaining. In Autorsha, Anita is the only female rickshaw driver in her local stand and who lives a frugal life from her meagre earnings. She has a horrible past but that has been left off for the second half as previously noted. Apart from a lack of character development (there's only two major characters here with the second one played by Rahul Madhav), Autorsha falters in a lot of departments, including the screenplay and humor. Stitching together sequences highlighting the benevolent and sometimes altruistic nature of rickshaw drivers in a way that is usually associated with documentary filmmaking does not really excite unless you are one. There's no closure to the proceedings that take place in second half, with an abrupt end to what seemed like a second innings in Anita's life. Autorsha is a collection of those videos about a single topic that you receive on your WhatsApp groups, stitched together, and sampled in high video quality. Nothing more. TN.
