Oke Oka Jeevitham/Kanam movie review: Sharwanand, Amala Akkineni-starrer is a beautiful tale about healing from grief

Sharwanand and Amala Akkineni’s bilingual — Oke Oka Jeevitham/Kanam —  is a film that is hard to define in a line. It has heart, its soul is initially a grieving mess, and anxiety bubbles right on the surface. The film uses time as tool to enforce the belief that grieving is personal, and the only way to overcome loss is acceptance. Sharwanand plays the role of Aadhi, a young musician with a social anxiety disorder. Unfortunately for him, he is passionate about music and his dream is to perform for an audience. He also struggles with the loss of his mother, and this adds a layer to struggle. The only one who really could assuage his fears was his mother, but in her absence, he is unable to come to terms with the fact that he will not physically experience the comforting presence of his mother.

The film is mainly about Aadhi’s journey. He does get a miraculous opportunity that no one in real life would. He gets the opportunity to go back in time, possibly save his mother. He gets an opportunity to meet his mother as an adult, sing her a song he had written for her, and eat food cooked by her. These moments may seem tiny, but had you experienced loss, you would understand how even the smallest of moments with a loved one who they have lost is magical. It is these moments that really drive home the point that the film is less about time travelling and more of a personal account of grief.

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It is for this very reason that I am convinced to let go of flaws. The physics behind time travelling? I will leave the science of this to greater than life sci-fi films. For now. What I would really like to expand on is the writing in this film. Even as it centered on this young man’s journey, it also imagined a life for him that was beyond his grief. His two best friends who have their own share of struggles, stand by his side. Just as he stands by them. They also have an arc of their own, a journey of their own that they set upon. This makes for a wholesome tale of friendship beyond loss. These friends — Chaiti (Priyadarshi) and Seenu (Vennela Kishore) ground Aadhi in his life, and his time-travelling adventure as well. Not just to support him, but to change something about their life as well.

Despite all of this, Aadhi’s grief and loss eats him up from inside. He is unable to move forward, he is unable to do the one thing he loves the most, and his father remains a figure that has only disapproved of all of his choices. With no one to confess to, and no one to replace his mother, Aadhi’s decision takes him on an unforgettable ride. While the adventure doesn’t change the outcome of his mother’s life, it changes him. He is able to observe the intimacy between his father and his mother, he is able to see how much his father loved him. In the end, the only one who could assuage his fear of the crowd, and the stage, had been his mother.

In the miraculous second chance that he received, he is able to face his loss head on. Instead of burying it deep within himself he is also able to experience the pain and loss — as a child and as an adult. It is a life comes a full circle moment when Aadhi tells his younger self that their mother is always around. She is around in the music that they love, and they also have a keepsake from her that is associated with an important moment in their lives. This moment speaks so much about the importance of trauma healing, not only for adults but children as well, that it stole my heart. In a society where trauma experienced by children continues to be buried in majority of households, this detail, of the little Aadhi experiencing the loss of his mother first hand is important.

It shows people the depth of loss felt by young kids, and the affect this kind of trauma can have on them as they grow into adults. Time heals, is a famous phrase that is used across the world in different languages. In Oke Oka Jeevitham, Time is used as an active tool to reiterate this belief, but in the most imaginative manner. The moments between adult Aadhi and his mother (portrayed by Amala Akkineni) to the wonderful music composed by Jakes Bejoy, is coloured with fascination and love. It is this combination of emotions that the audiences are left with for the film. Fascination for how grief has been dealt with, and love for the treatment that trauma caused by loss receives in the film.

Priyanka Sundar is a film journalist who covers films and series of different languages with special focus on identity and gender politics.

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