Aabhaasam Malayalam Movie

Feature Film | 2018 | UA | Drama
Critics:
'Aabhaasam' is an unconventional film in terms of its presentation, which is soaked in metaphorical elements. Moving on satirical mode, the major drawback of this film is that it lacks a specific story to link with the audience.
May 6, 2018 By K. R. Rejeesh

Where To Watch:
Streaming:
   Amazon Prime
DVD Release: Jun 25 2018

An utmost disorder by challenging the conventional presentation is the hallmark of "Aabhaasam," written and directed by debutant Jubith Namradath. It revamps the familiar visual interpretations to unveil the reality and takes a potshot at hypocrites. Everything is a trope as far as this movie is concerned as it traverses through current issues of the society. It discusses our attitudes towards transgenders, eating habits and religion etc. The bus in which the camera spends most of the time has a huge sticker, 'Democrazy,' on it and a graphic picture of Gandhiji. The passengers represent each individual of our community. The concept has novelty but the execution fails to click in its intended manner.


A bus named Gandhi, owned by Democrazy Travel Agency, sets off its journey from Bengaluru to Thiruvananthapuram. Interestingly, this travel agency owns buses named Godse, Marx and Ambedkar etc. The focus is on the passengers of Gandhi bus. They form a cross section of the society, and hence the passengers possess mixed behavioral patterns. Some are lustful, drug addicts and some exposes their hypocrisy in matters related to spirituality and the God.


Sans a name, all the characters have their own drawbacks. Jubith refers to the current socio-political issues in the journey. En route, a police officer (Nasser) intercepts the vehicle and questions the driver (Alancier). He has no answer to the question about the whereabouts of the cleaner of the bus (Suraj Venjaramoodu), who had alighted somewhere with two people. The scared driver runs away leaving the passengers stranded in the bus on the road at night. Then the police take over the bus.


All the events have metaphorical connections but you feel disappointed as the usual plot device is absent in the film. The director's efforts to create satire go awry as the one-liner of this film does not qualify to be upgraded to a full-length creation. When the bus named Marx overtakes the Gandhi bus owned by Democrazy agency, some people from Gandhi bus amusingly look out of the window, and this shot proclaims many things. Such symbolic representations convey some serious thoughts.


The film also stars Indrans, Rima Kallingal, Anil Nedumangad and Sheetal Syam among others. The cast all perform adequately, with Suraj in particular proving effective. Prasanna. S. Kumar has taken a commendable effort to depict appealing visuals during the journey while Shameer Muhammed has done a neat job in the editing department.


This is an unconventional film in terms of its presentation, which is soaked in metaphorical elements. Moving on satirical mode, the major drawback of this film is that it lacks a specific story to link with the audience.

K. R. Rejeesh

   

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