'Haven't your son completed his Medical course?', 'Is it worth pursuing PhD after Medicine?', 'When is he getting married?,' etc. etc. Well these are some of the queries that my parents & I had faced and Im pretty certain almost all of you would have come across similar queries about your personal & professional choices from relatives & even total strangers. Apparently, the society seems to be more concerned (I guess 'judgmental' would be the apt word) about us than our own parents & that irks me to no end. One such question that the women face is the core subject of Jude Anthany's "Sara's" that released on Amazon Prime y'day. Surprisingly, there was hardly any publicity until Lalettan posted it on his FB page a few hours prior to its release (which is how I came to know). So will it garner the word of mouth in its favour or remain unknown???
Ever since Sara (Anna Ben) could remember she was pretty sure that motherhood wasn't quite up her alley. This didn't quite appeal to the guys & as she said figuratively for her first boyfriend "the guy didn't want the puffs without the egg". Her ambition was to become a film maker & she passionately followed that dream by assisting various projects with the support of her parents especially her father, Vincent (Benny Nayarambalam). With the experience gained, she decided to pen a script & as part of that research she visited a forensic surgeon, Dr. Sandhya Philip (Dhanya Varma). Incidentally, Sandhya's brother Jeevan (Sunny Wayne) also had a similar outlook to parenthood like Sara & that proved to be the catalyst that kindled the chemistry between them. However, Sara was reluctant to tie the knot until her debut venture had sprouted wings. Though Jeevan supported her decision, will they be able to convince their families???
This is Jude's third venture & he has yet again chosen a woman as the protagonist with a relevant subject whereby the family & society pressurizes the girl into marriage & other related phases of it. Interestingly, the script was the creation of Dr. Akshay Hareesh who were one among the many who had sent their creations to Jude after the latter made a request about the same on his FB page. Despite the similarity in the equation between father & daughter as in "Om Shanthi Oshana", this still had a distinct soul of its own. Kudos to Jude for treating the subject without ever getting overtly serious but at the same point not backing down from raising questions about some common stigmas. It also had some sequences that really stood out such as Siddique's counselling session & the veteran actress who is asked to make a comeback. If at all there is one aspect that I didn't quite warm up to was the reason for the reactions of some of the characters in the climax which I felt wasn't conveyed convincingly. The technical aspects of the movie were impressive be it Shaan Rahman's melodies & BGM, Nimish Ravi's colourful visuals that imparted positive vibes & also the art team.
Once again, Anna Ben hits the bull's eye with a praise worthy performance & hats off to her ability to choose interesting scripts until now which gave her ample opportunity to showcase her skills. Sunny did a decent job though in some sequences he lacked the naturality while Siddique as usual rocked in the limited time he was on screen. It was refreshing to see Benny (in a role similar to Renji Panicker from "OSO") share screen space with his daughter & he has done a fine job. But one artist, who really surprised me was Mallika Sukumaran as I barely recollect liking any of her dramatic performances. However as Sunny's mom she was spot on as the conventional orthodox parent with the right amount of love, attitude & authority. As for the rest of the cast, Dhanya Varma, Prasanth Nair "Collector Bro" etc., have done their parts aptly.
Verdict: No matter how progressive we are, there is still a prevalent mindset in the society that when it comes to relationships and both the guy & gal have to adhere to certain norms and expectations. Is it wrong to say that such parents shouldn't have expectations? They certainly can have their wishes & advise their loved ones, but ultimately we need to realize that a girl have the right to take decisions about her life and career and as to what might be her priority. As a movie, it has raised some important questions in a light hearted manner & certainly deserves a watch!!!
Rating: 3/5
Regards...Ben
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