Ayalvaashi movie review: Barring the Chewing Gum song and Soubin, there’s nothing here

Cast: Soubin Shahir, Binu Pappu, Lijomol Jose, Nikhila Vimal, Jaya Kurup, M.S. Gokulan, Naslen, Jagadish, Vijayaraghavan        Director: Irshad Parari Language: Malayalam There’s an atom of an idea in Ayalvaashi, emerging from the same cinematic sensibility that has given us gems like Maheshinte Prathikaaram from the Malayalam industry – the approach is to pick a curious incident involving an ordinary person, and use it as the central plot point for a full-length feature, offering a detailed character study of the protagonist and showcasing the socio-cultural setting in which the story unfolds. In Mahesh’s case, the richly insightful narrative revolved around a small-town resident swearing never to wear slippers again until he avenges his humiliation in a petty public brawl. In Ayalvaashi, debutant writer-director Irshad Parari zeroes in on a rift between friends that arises when scratches appear on a two-wheeler belonging to one of them, and the other vows not to rest till he finds out whodoneit. There’s potential there, but Irshad struggles to get within even touching distance of the quality that so many Malayalam filmmakers of past decades have achieved with the most basic of premises. The name Ayalvaashi is a play on the Malayalam words for neighbourhood (ayal), neighbour (ayalvaasi) and obstinacy (vaashi). It is one of only two clever elements in the entire enterprise. The title is a reference to the tension following a misunderstanding between life-long friends Thaju ( Soubin Shahir ) and Benny (Binu Pappu) who are neighbours. When Benny’s family sells a vehicle they own, the buyer almost immediately returns it, complaining of scratches on its body that, so he says, were intentionally camouflaged during the sale. Speculation about who was responsible leads to hurt feelings and anger all around. Ayalvaashi is tepid from its very first scene. M.S. Gokulan playing Ajippan, a mutual friend of Thaju and Benny, is the narrator. Blaming him for the lukewarm voiceover makes no sense since the writing itself is so lukewarm, the editing so lackadaisical and the direction dull. Thaju is an orphan who is struggling financially, lives in his wife’s parents’ home and lacks a sense of self-worth. Irshad as a writer fails to examine how the shame this man feels and the humiliation heaped on him are a result of patriarchal mindsets, including his own, that deem it natural for a woman to move into her husband’s parental home after marriage but not vice versa. Instead, the script simply focuses on his wife (Lijomol Jose) and her family’s expectations from Thaju without addressing the social system within which they operate and the social conditioning that has birthed them all. The other protagonist, Thaju’s friend Benny, is home on a break from his job in a Gulf country and lands right in the middle of the strained relations between his wife Celina (Nikhila Vimal) and his unpleasant mother ( Jaya Kurup ). There is a sizeable passage in Ayalvaashi that encapsulates Benny’s worries. The screen keeps cutting from Benny at home reasoning with his mother as she drones on and on about Celina’s neglect of her domestic duties, to Celina in her father’s home droning on and on about her unreasonable mother-in-law while her Dad (Jagadish) patiently listens and only occasionally ventures to defend the old lady. The segment closes on a split screen with the two conversations on either side. Meanwhile, Thaju has been made to feel small by his wife and father-in-law in a nicely written, well-acted scene that works when viewed in isolation, but is lost to an overall absence of contextualisation in the script. Without the bigger picture, what we are left with is stereotypes of paavam men driven around the bend by nagging women and demanding families. Analysing Ayalvaashi’s gender politics beyond this does not seem worthwhile, since the storytelling is so sub-standard. Except for one moment I recall, when we get a solo shot of Celina beckoning her daughter and the very next shot is of Benny walking towards someone as if he was the one she beckoned, I can’t think of a single instance of considered editing in the film, and this one too is not fully realised anyway, which means I’m really clutching at straws here. The normalisation of minorities is so routine in Malayalam cinema, that the Muslim-Christian-Hindu buddies as Ayalvaashi’s leads are par for the course and can hardly be a reason to recommend it. Ditto for the pretty shots of Kerala scenery while Thaju drives around. The only part of Ayalvaashi that really made me sit up was composer Jakes Bejoy’s Chewing Gum. Imagine you are having a really bad day and on top of that, a bird craps on your head while flying past or, as in Thaju’s case, you step on chewing gum. The song is sparked by the latter situation. The creative concept, the catchy tune and tempo, the idea of getting random folk on the streets including grey-haired Ammachis and kids to break into a dance around Thaju, the simple yet fun choreography and the well-matched voices, all add up to Ayalvaashi’s most entertaining few minutes. Then it’s back to the grind that is the rest of this film. Even the memory of the Chewing Gum song is marred by its re-use in a music video in the end featuring Soubin and a bunch of men who have been dressed up and styled for the purpose – the direction and choreographing of that sequence are as lethargic as the film itself. Soubin Shahir commits himself in all earnestness to Ayalvaashi, but what’s the point? Binu Pappu’s timing is awry, Nikhila Vimal is too peripheral for her striking screen presence to count, and the lovely Naslen playing Thaju’s brother-in-law is given even less to do than she is. The only one who leaves any kind of impression other than Soubin in this poorly handled project is Lijomol Jose, but she was such a stunner in the Tamil Jai Bhim that Ayalvaashi only serves to remind us that she deserves so much better than this under-done film. Rating: 1 (out of 5 stars)  **This review was first published in April 2023 when Ayalvaashi was in theatres. The film is now streaming on Netflix. ** 

Anna M.M. Vetticad is an award-winning journalist and author of The Adventures of an Intrepid Film Critic. She specialises in the intersection of cinema with feminist and other socio-political concerns. Twitter: @annavetticad, Instagram: @annammvetticad, Facebook: AnnaMMVetticadOfficial Read all the  Latest News ,  Trending News ,  Cricket News ,  Bollywood News ,  India News  and  Entertainment News  here. Follow us on  Facebook,  Twitter and  Instagram.