There are precious few films that evoke a tear these days...though that wasnt the case sometime back.
The moments were cliched and yet they did manage to bring out the saline drops....this movie is a mature effort with excellent performances by all involved.
Most of the film is dreary, as dry as dust, in terms of the locations. Where elsewhere in the country films are about glamour glitz and chiffon sarees in foreign locations this tiny little corner of "God's own country" audaciously makes an aging old lady one of the central characters. Not only that, she steals the show in her "stone-like-emotion-less-face". So much so you instantly love her when the faint smiles appear.
"Humanity is a ocean. If a few drops in the ocean are dirty, the ocean does not become dirty". A beautiful directorial snip you might almost miss in the film, if you are not looking for it.
The dirty drops in this oceanic story are too easy to spot and so close to reality we mustn't dwell on them.
The ocean itself - Gokulan, the struggling lawyer who leaves no stone unturned to bring justice to his client Ayisha Rawther. Britto Vincent who has stood by her (/son) from the night she gets arrested till the very final day, many years later , when the "326" is dismissed. Sathaar the son, who only learnt to love through his heart and can't bear to keep it together, when he lets his mother go. Abhilash who is as much a victim in the story, as Ayisha, of the dirty drops that created the FIR and triggered this case which the film does well to remind the audience is only a sample of the 47 million cases pending in Indian courts. And all those little champs on the streets who seems to follow Ayisha (even when she is living alone), lapping up snacks she makes for them. Nazi the daughter in law who chooses to live in denial of her husband's implied death, even though she keeps away from the case and proceedings having gone through the pain (of legal tours and visits) for her own brother previously.
"The place he went to might be that good"- an agonizing response from Ayisha when asked about why her missing son was not returning home, is by far the hardest moment of the film.
This one is a must watch and I couldnt match the emotions watching it evokes through my words, so i will stop here. May the ocean of such stories never dry....
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