Saudi Vellakka will take a part of you away forever

What a glorious beginning to 2023! The strangely titled Saudi Vellakka in Malayalam, now streaming on SonyLIV, oscillates between the gut-wrenching and the ironic, finally settling to be a parable on human resilience and the judiciary. This is a film that tells us it is based on a true incident. We really didn’t have to be told. Almost every frame exudes a scent of sincerity. The central character which emerges eventually is the octogenarian Aisha Rowther (played by a non-professional senior actress Devi Varma who is to this film what Bisham Sahni was in Mohan Joshi Haazir Ho). At one point in the completely involving courtroom drama — and I use that term hesitantly, for Aisha’s battles go far beyond the courtroom — one of the characters grumbles about how she never shows any expression, never smiles, never frowns, as though she knows the world only too well to be judgemental. It all begins when Aisha hits a little boy for playing cricket near her house. She accidentally breaks the boy’s tooth, and from then onwards for the next ten years or so, Aisha’s life is about the whole tooth and nothing but the tooth. We have seen many notable films in the past about the apathy of the judiciary. What sets Saudi Vellakka apart is that it doesn’t stand judgment over any of the parties concerned. There are no really bad people in this film, not even Aisha’s daughter-in-law (Dhanya Ananya) whose endless taunts drive both Aisha and her son Sathaar (Sujith Shankar) away from home. Sathaar’s disappearance from the legal mess is so heartbreaking, I thought it would somehow stymie the plot’s fluency. But these are people so inured to the adversity they see setbacks as the rule and not the exception of existence. These are true survivors.

My favourite moment in the fluently written if a little over-sentimental plot is when Sathaar’s faithful friend Britto (his hand in getting Aisha the bail when she is first arrested, cannot be undermined) played with excellent fluidity by Binu Pappu, asks Sathaar’s mother Aisha why Sathaar has disappeared. “I don’t know, son. But he must be more comfortable wherever he is,” Aisha replies quietly. What gives Aisha the strength to keep on moving through her solitary fight? Where does she find the strength? Certainly not from her family. Support comes from a small-time lawyer Gokulan who is a little too gimmicky in his wheeler-dealer overtures to seem fully credible. There are times especially towards the end of Aisha Rowther’s legal battle when the narrative falters, and I certainly don’t buy the happy ending even if it is true. But there is an intrinsic sincerity to the characters. Aisha’s battle cannot leave anyone unmoved. She is an anonymous hero, so nondescript you wouldn’t give her a second glance at the courthouse where she sits patiently for her hearing. Finally, the boy Abhilash whom she had beaten, now all grown up (Lukman Avaran) comes to Aisha’s rescue. But the justice is so delayed it seems like too late and too little. There are thousands of humbug litigations in the Indian courts causing untold trauma and pain to common people. Saudi Vellakka pays a heartfelt tribute to all the Aishas of the world who spend their entire life in and out of courts. Writer-director Tharun Moorthy had scored a sixer with his first film Operation Java. With Saudi Vellakka he goes much deeper into the human subconscious to wonder what makes some of us so unwearied in our quest for justice. Subhash K Jha is a Patna-based journalist. He has been writing about Bollywood for long enough to know the industry inside out. Read all the  Latest News ,  Trending News ,  Cricket News ,  Bollywood News ,  India News  and  Entertainment News  here. Follow us on  Facebook,  Twitter and Instagram