Oruthee

RATED 7/10 Language: Malayalam Media Partner: Prime - ManoramaMax

Solid drama without any lagging. Movie was bit slow in the beginning and quickly settles in the plot line. Good comeback Drama for Navya. The acting was solid and the expressions are authentic. I Liked Vinayakan role very much. He steals the show towards end. His cunning look and the role perfectly suits for him.

The only problem is the predictability of the story and simple story.

Worth the watch.

Perhaps no single actress has been able to capture the essence of the everywoman Malayali village lass than Navya Nair, especially in the State-Award winning classic "Nandanam (2002)" as well other hits like "Mazhathullikkilukkam (2002)" and "Vellithira (2003)". Now, at age 36, she has ably metamorphosized into a quintessential hardworking mother character and displays all the experience she has gained working in multiple South Indian industries to deliver a resounding performance in V. K Prakash's hard-hitting "Oruthee".

Two-time National Award-winning director VK Prakash has had an inconsistent career to say the least. Having delivered groundbreaking cinema like "Punaradhivasam (2000)", "Beautiful (2011)" and "Nirnayakam (2015)", he has also forayed into ill-conceived, poorly executed comedies like "Gulumaal (2009)" and "Three Kings (2011)" as well. Thankfully, in Oruthee, he sticks to his strong suit of socially relevant drama, narrating the harrowing story of a few days in the life of a working mother desperately trying to arrange the funds for the treatment of her ill child.

The title itself, strongly conveys the politics of the movie with "Oruthee" a play on the Malayalam term for "her", smartly rewording it to also mean "A fire". And Navya Nair ably provides the fierce, fiery performance worthy of the titular character, displaying the care and compassion of a protective mother as well as all the anger, frustration and never-say-die attitude of a parent willing to go to any lengths for her children. Vinayakan is expectedly terrific as a virtuous police officer, stuck within a corrupt system that tries to suck him in at every turn.

It is downright criminal that the Malayalam industry has not been able to provide an actress of Navya Nair's capability with better roles on a regular basis. Nevertheless, in her first role in Malayalam after a gap of almost 10 years, the 2-time Kerala State Award winner for Best Actress makes a strong case for more accolades and recognition, which has already started off with Film Companion recognizing her terrific performance with the Performance of the Moth-March 2022 title. Highly recommended!

I feel like the director wanted to capture emotions like an indie film but also couldn't compromise on the commercial flick aspect, especially with the core fanbase of Navya Nair - older women. The first hour of the movie is extremely pointless. It follows the track of an indie slow burner but in such type of movies they might focus on the visual aspect, or the capturing of a character's emotion...in this nothing of that sort happens. There are character predispositions which eventually contributes NOTHING to the movie we are watching. Then there's 2 songs which follow the cliche formula. All in all, if this was well-edited to a 1h20m or even 1h30m it could have been a brilliant film.

Now let's move onto the next aspect- the story. Oh my goodness..it claims to be based on a true story. Now, "based on true story" might be used for even fiction (like Fargo), but here there's no intelligent use of this phrase. They literally mean to milk off a real-life incident but wait till you realize there's only 10-15 min part in the movie that is inspired by a true event. And even then it could have been done in less than 5 mins. But they chose to add extra masala and make it 10x exaggerated...it goes on for 10-15 excruciatingly boring sequences.

They also tried to make the ending stylish but it came off as goofy and laughable.

There are some forced references to Navya's debut film Nandanam. Not really a spoiler but when you hear her phone's ringtone in the movie you'll notice. If you are someone who loves that song, you'll hate it after watching this movie. The forced reference is so painful as we hear the ringtone play some absurdly high number of times (at least 20+ times in the movie). I hope someone tells the director that this doesn't count as an intelligent film callback or reference, rather it's just plain annoying.

Vinayan's performance was a saving grace. Actually excellent. That has to be said. Wish he could have gotten more screen time in the first half of the movie.

In the end, the current rating of 9.1 for this movie is an outright crime. It's barely a 6.5 or 7. But then we have cliche flicks like Jan E Man and Bangalore Days at 8+ and well made films like Salute down at 7..so this is expected anyway. IMDb needs to even further review their weightage systems for such films to avoid inflated and misleading ratings.

The screenplay has some obvious drawbacks, but Navya Nair's riveting performance really makes you invested in the outcome of the film's events. Vinayakan also shines in the role of a righteous cop. I'm interested in seeing Chapter Two.

Brilliant movie, another masterpiece piece by VKP, camera work could have been better, there were multiple flaws, otherwise brilliant work by actors, director, script writer and the rest of the crew.