The weekend is here & obviously the main aim is to check out Joshiy's "Paappan", but since Indhu V.S's "19(1)(a)" had released on Disney+Hotstar platform, I decided to give it a try. With Vijay Sethupathi & Nitya Menen headlining the project & the title named after Article 19(1)(a) of our Constitution which gives us the right to freedom of speech & expression, I presume most of the people would have had expectations about it like me. Well to be frank, it failed to do justice to both the subject that it wanted to tackle & the solid cast they had assembled.
Nitya Menen, who is incidentally unnamed in the movie leads a mundane life whereby she takes care of her father & earns her livelihood from the photoshop that they had in the junction. Both the father & daughter shared a rather cold relationship, as the former spent his time literally doing nothing worthwhile. Nitya's life takes a turn when human activist, Gauri Shankar (Vijay Sethupathi) sought her services to photocopy the draft of the book that he had penned. However, he never turned up to collect the copies as he was gunned down by some unknown assailants. This leaves her in a state of unrest & confusion and what she does subsequently forms the rest of the plot.
This is Indhu's directorial debut & the subject that she wanted to convey was indeed a topic of immense relevance nowadays. She takes her sweet time to introduce us to the protagonist's life and despite quite a few subplots, none of them were adequately explored. It manages to build up the hype with the murder & Nitya's decision as to what to do with the book, but hardly anything happens and we are left underwhelmed. The technical aspects were ok with Govind Vasantha's music especially the one at the wedding being impressive.
It's been quite a while since we have Nitya takes centre stage in a Malayalam movie & she has done a fine job. Despite the lack lustered screenplay, she conveys the anguish & helplessness of the character's condition effectively. Sethupathi deserves praise for a commendable performance, Bhagath Manuel, Atulya Ashadem (as Fathima) & Srikant Murali (as Nitya's dad) were ok while Indrajith, Indrans & Deepak Parambol were wasted.
Verdict: There is no doubt that the movie would have tanked at the box office if they had released it in theatres. Indhu's brave attempt to talk about a relevant topic deserves praise but the execution left a lot to be desired for. In short, it was disappointing!!!
Rating: 1.5/5
Regards...Ben
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