Onnum Mindathe Malayalam Movie
Those family dramas pickled in sweet saccharine still exist! If you don't believe me, head over to the cinema hall playing 'Onnum Mindathe' and get yourself an almost repulsive dose to see what I'm talking about.
It's a perfect world that Sachi (Jayaram) and Syama (Meera Jasmine) have built for themselves, and along with their daughter, everything around seems to spell out bliss. Its common news that such heavens do not last for long, and a bombshell soon drops in, much to the couple's chagrin.
One cannot exactly say that its one that strays into their midst, for the man has to be squarely blamed in this case. Enticed by the intoxication that wine and women offer, Sachi is seduced by Rose (Sarayu), that splits his family life into smithereens.
Yawn. And so they believe that this is the first time ever that we are watching the tale of a wayward hubby on screen, and they play it out confidently, concerned perhaps a bit too little about the indifferent look that spreads across the hapless viewers' faces.
The wait for the ordeal to end takes a while, and you know that the wifey should be crafted of a material that has a close semblance to gold, since she is the epitome of goodness that looks as unreal as it gets. Characters are either black or white here; grey isn't much of a color it seems.
I wonder where the need to create such films crops up from, since the television seems to be flooded as such with sitcoms that dwell on the very same subject, in all diverse ways possible. It's unbelievable hence when a film maker decides to dapple with the worn out modus operandi yet again on the big screen and a few big stars join in to lend their support!
It's extremely difficult to keep the viewers focused on anything that is not decidedly different these days, and 'Onnum Mindathe' has no such singularities stacked in its armor. Almost everything is dreadfully formulaic, so much so that the dreariness exhausts you even more than the sweltering heat raging outside.
I would strictly reserve my comments on the performances, since there is nothing much to be discussed on that front. Jayaram is very much Jayaram, while Meera Jasmine goes about her job almost lackadaisically. There is nothing much to be mentioned about the supporting cast as well, that includes such names as Manoj K Jayan.
All this would have looked pretty much interesting a couple of decades back, but in 2014, 'Onnum Mindathe' looks way out of place. And again, this is no 'Aksharathettu' either, not by any yardstick or measure.
Some films send you sprinting into silent mode once you are done watching them. I'm sure this must never have been the film maker's intention when they named their film 'Onnum Mindathe', but as a dejected audience walks out of the cinema halls, silence is precisely what prevails.
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