Udaharanam Sujatha Malayalam Movie
It's a snap to anticipate the nature of a Manju Warrier film nowadays. The amalgamation of inspirational elements and underlying messages of empowerment is prevalent as a default. I guess debutant Phantom Praveen has found an apt choice in Manju to portray Sujatha Krishnan in "Udaharanam Sujatha" after realizing the aura she has acquired in her second innings in films.
There is sacrifice, love and hard work in the character, except the ability to sincerely absorb the empathy of the audience. We have seen the spectacular performance of Surabhi Lakshmi as a housemaid in "Minnaminungu."Interestingly, both these films have an almost same premise. Sujatha, the housemaid, is not a challenge at all for Manju Warrier, but she lacks consistency in delivering the Thiruvananthapuram slang.
This film is a remake of the Hindi film "Nil Battey Sannata" ("Amma Kanakku" in Tamil). We have a slum to tell the story of Sujatha, a widow, and her daughter Athira Krishnan (Anaswara Rajan), who is an idle Class 10 student. Her dismal performance in exams makes Sujatha unhappy and her efforts to advice Athira to come up in studies bite the dust.
In the house of George Paul (Nedumudi Venu), a scriptwriter, Sujatha works as a domestic servant. He helps her overcome the dilemma of Athira's poor performance in studies. His idea has the novelty and then the movie becomes a glib exercise.
The theme is bound to be inspirational, but director Praveen has conceived the screenplay, written by Martin Prakkat and Naveen Bhaskar, as a usual material for visual representation sans applying any innovation. He forgets to infuse the identity of a filmmaker in his creation. The initial scenes are sluggish and it takes its time to gather momentum. The treatment is inattentive and the filmmaker has used songs inappropriately, providing little help to the narration. Praveen gives sufficient room for motivational elements through Sujatha but in most parts they are far-fetched.
Manju exudes perfectly the angst and disappointment of an ordinary mother, who lives in a slum in Thiruvananthapuram city. Even then there are only a couple of scenes that remind you of the caliber of Manju Warrier.
Anaswara Rajan is impressive as a careless schoolgirl and Joju George as schoolteacher offers some laughter moments. Unfortunately, this film does not possess much to brag about the technical aspects.
A highly preachy and motivational film, "Udaharanam Sujatha" sets the example in parts. An extraordinary idea turns out to be a damp squib due to the uninspiring narration.
OTHER REVIEWS
Kiran & Allan