In this episode of Start Action Cut, Swathi and Padmakumar are analysing the Malayalam movie Aavesham directed by Jithu Madhavan and starring Fahadh Faasil in the lead.
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[00:00:00] Hi, Welcome to Onmanorama Movie Podcast, Start, Action, Cut.
[00:00:17] Today we are decoding the Malayalam movie, Aaveasham directed by Jitthu Mathavan and starring
[00:00:25] Farth Farsal in the lead. Swathi is joining us to discuss the film. Swathi, how was the
[00:00:31] movie for you?
[00:00:32] Well, Fatma Kumar, I really, really enjoyed the film when I saw the trailer, I think a
[00:00:37] month back or so. I did not know what this movie was about and I was not clearly impressed
[00:00:42] with the trailer. I thought it was something, it might be a regular or a kind of movie
[00:00:47] that you've seen before already. But when I saw the movie, I thought it's really
[00:00:51] interesting, it's really funny. Some of the scenes were really funny and for me, I saw
[00:00:56] the movie as a mass entertainer. There is not much of a plot there but if you want a good
[00:01:01] entertainer or a good comedy film, this is the perfect movie for you.
[00:01:05] Like you said, there is no particular plot line or a storyline. If you look into it,
[00:01:10] there is no actually well-crafted drama, I mean story. If you want to put it,
[00:01:17] you will find that there is a group of youngsters in a college, they want to seek revenge on
[00:01:25] their seniors who were torsing or ragging them and they take the help of a group of
[00:01:31] local gangsters. That's all. And there is nothing much exciting in the story and
[00:01:37] what follows is something that you never expect to happen.
[00:01:44] If you would like to narrate what the story is, how do you put it Swathi?
[00:01:49] Well, Patma Kumar, like I mentioned before, there is not much of a plot there. It's just
[00:01:53] a very simple one-liner story. It's like three young boys come to Bangalore and they
[00:01:59] start studying this college and they meet this goon. And because I've studied Bangalore,
[00:02:04] I know that whatever they've shown in the movie is the real setup. It's just like
[00:02:08] the PG setup and people convincing you to come and join the PG's. I don't know about
[00:02:14] the goon part, but I've actually seen people dress up like that in Bangalore and it was
[00:02:18] really pretty close to what you experience in Bangalore. So I don't know if I was expecting
[00:02:23] much of a plot there because I think after the second half, during the second half
[00:02:27] movie, I was thinking, okay, this is just going in a linear pattern. The movie is not
[00:02:33] going anywhere else. The plot is not going anywhere else. Then I realized, okay,
[00:02:36] this might be just what the maker wanted. This might be what Jitumathavan wanted. It's
[00:02:42] just a very simple plot. And I think he just wanted the audience to be really, to just
[00:02:48] thoroughly enjoy the movie because throughout the movie, me and everyone was just laughing
[00:02:53] throughout the movie. And there were very minimal scenes where there were serious
[00:02:57] scenes so people were just silent. I don't have a problem with the fact that the
[00:03:02] movie didn't have much of a plot because it managed to entertain the audience at the end
[00:03:06] of the day. And if the makers were able to do that, and I think also Fahad has put out
[00:03:12] a fantastic performance. His performance was fully power packed. I don't think I've seen
[00:03:18] Fahad in such a power packed action comedy movie before. And I think that's something
[00:03:23] very new. And maybe that was also one of the reasons why the movies were entertaining.
[00:03:28] So maybe like I said before, I don't have a problem with the movie not having
[00:03:31] a plot because it managed to entertain me. But if you are looking for a deeper plot or
[00:03:37] much more complicated something, then the movie might not work for you. But other than
[00:03:43] that, it just works fine I guess.
[00:03:45] Yeah. Like he did in his previous movie Jitumathavan, did away with any kind of high
[00:03:53] sounding philosophy or a deeply moving emotional drama. So there is nothing of such
[00:03:58] things in this movie. The movie went as accurately as he had planned, like what I
[00:04:05] found so engaging in the in this film is the pace and the making of the movie from
[00:04:10] the word go, you are right into the right inside the canvas, right inside the drama.
[00:04:16] The whole mayhem you are part of the whole action and the fights and the
[00:04:22] conflicts. They had nothing else in their mind. We are so it's kind of a make
[00:04:27] live world where the gangster, the gang leader, he had some past that's also in a
[00:04:33] very funnily created very, very comical in that sense. So there is nothing much
[00:04:40] deeper into it. So the movement, the how, how, how the three students played by
[00:04:47] hipster, Mithun Jayasangar and Roshan Shannovas. So they are problems. They
[00:04:52] are they are being the junior. They are being tortured by their seniors and
[00:04:56] they were want to seek revenge. And how they wanted a local gangster to give a
[00:05:02] befitting replay to what they had experienced at the hands of those seniors.
[00:05:07] So those movements, how they were that plot line was very simple. How they how
[00:05:14] they cook up how they plot, how they plan their future actions. All those
[00:05:20] things are very, very naively plotted. But we know that this is not a real thing.
[00:05:27] This is there is nothing to be serious about it. But you are part of the whole
[00:05:33] bandwagon. So that phase is what I think engaged me throughout the film. And
[00:05:40] the characters mainly will come to far, far later. Mainly the characters,
[00:05:45] the mainly the college students. For me, they were very new. I haven't seen
[00:05:49] them in any of the movies before. But they did well. I mean, the characters
[00:05:54] they portrayed was very, I won't say perfect, but they quite convinced. What
[00:06:00] do you say? So Patmukh Kumar, I too found all of the main characters quite
[00:06:05] their performance is really genuine and it was really funny for me. Of
[00:06:09] course, Paahat Paahat and the youngsters were really superb. They
[00:06:13] were all spot. It was Sajan Gopu who stood out for me because he was
[00:06:16] just entirely hilarious. He was throughout his energy levels, the way he
[00:06:21] delivered the dialogues and everything about him was just very hilarious,
[00:06:24] especially the scene where he screams and then the boys ask him like, did you
[00:06:30] see it? Then he's like, I don't know. All those sequences were really,
[00:06:35] really funny. I think he complimented Paahat's character really,
[00:06:38] really well because I think their comedic timings and the way they
[00:06:42] interacting with each other and the love that Amban's character has for
[00:06:46] Fahat's character, Ranga. All that was really interesting to see and it was
[00:06:50] really funny. I think it's until the very last point of the movie. Sajan's
[00:06:56] character is consistently funny. One thing about the movie is that you're
[00:07:00] not shown much of a background into their characters, be it Fahat's
[00:07:04] character or Sajan's character. We don't know who they are in real
[00:07:07] life. You're just given fragments from their life. Sometimes you're
[00:07:11] shown or Amban tells you that he came to Bangalore because of some case that
[00:07:16] he had Gherla. But proper characters are not painted in the movie. You're just
[00:07:20] given bits and pieces but that is enough. I think the fact that
[00:07:25] they don't, that Arthena has not set up a really well-structured base for
[00:07:29] these characters makes them more interesting or intriguing because
[00:07:32] you never really understand who these people are at their core. You just
[00:07:36] get a shell at them and those shells are really funny is what I felt. Obviously
[00:07:41] the three youngsters, they did brilliantly, their roles that they were given and
[00:07:44] their comedy timings. I think because, as I'm repeating this again, but
[00:07:50] because I've been in Bangalore, I was a student in Bangalore, a lot of people
[00:07:53] are like that. The students there, they're very excited to when they
[00:07:56] get all this freedom all at once and to have a life of their own. Bangalore
[00:08:00] is a very free city and you can do whatever. All that is really
[00:08:04] well-exploded in the movie. Yeah. Now, the takeaway in this movie is, I would
[00:08:10] say Fahd Fasil. He was, as you said earlier, we have never seen him in such
[00:08:15] an avatar maybe in such a comedy role, such a hilarious comic role. Maybe
[00:08:20] glimpses of that comedy, comical Fahd was there in the film Kumbhalingi
[00:08:26] Knights but here he was throughout. So how their character of Fahd Fasil
[00:08:32] has been evolved in this movie is what keeps you glued to the screen.
[00:08:37] So a lot can be written or said about this character, how he was conceived
[00:08:43] and how he was evolved and how he then the movie concluded. I mean, actually
[00:08:48] there is no conclusion to the character. What is so special about
[00:08:52] this character is that he's comical but at the same time he is so I mean
[00:09:00] terror generating figure. I mean the moment he shouts the whole world
[00:09:06] around him comes to stand still. So he had that power but at the same time
[00:09:11] we feel fun from the way he does funny things. So that's one thing.
[00:09:18] So the layers, there are several layers of character traits in him.
[00:09:23] Like one thing I very much liked about this Ranga, the character
[00:09:28] played by Fahd Fasil is that he is wild and he's angry and he's also sad.
[00:09:36] But at the same time, the very next moment he regroups and he regains
[00:09:43] his senses and moves on. He doesn't bother about what tragedy or what
[00:09:48] laws he has incurred. Like one example, one simple example is that
[00:09:53] when he celebrates his birthday, you can see a big cake has been kept on
[00:10:00] the table for him to cut. But when he sees that his own image is
[00:10:05] being imprinted on that cake and he goes on to cut the cake but he
[00:10:10] doesn't feel like cutting it because it's his own image. So he
[00:10:14] cuts a piece of it from the corner but his man Friday, that's
[00:10:18] a but the character played by Sachin Gobu, he just grabs the eyeball of
[00:10:23] the image. I mean the icing. So for a second, he's stunned.
[00:10:29] See saying what happened? What's this? But the next moment he just
[00:10:33] cheers and starts dancing along with his pals. So that's that's
[00:10:38] the kind of character trait that has been given to him. And also
[00:10:43] he switches back and forth between these different shades of
[00:10:47] characters with such an ease and dexterity that we never feel any
[00:10:52] any any spec in the whole character sketch. So that's how
[00:10:58] this character has been developed. So there are so many
[00:11:01] things to be said about this character of Fremont. So if he
[00:11:05] if it's action, we feel it's true. He can do that he can
[00:11:09] fight 30 40 people in a in a gang war. So that's
[00:11:14] convincingly portrayed. He has he does this with convincing
[00:11:18] deafness. So that's the first puzzle character. So what do you
[00:11:23] see? What how do you explain first character in this movie?
[00:11:26] Swati?
[00:11:27] So Patma Kumar when I so I think the last one that I saw of
[00:11:31] Fahad was Marman and I remember thinking that maybe he has
[00:11:35] reached his limits and this is all he can do. I think his
[00:11:38] performance is marman and was quite similar to some of the
[00:11:40] roles that he's already he had done already. And I was like
[00:11:43] maybe he this is what he can do and probably his reach its limits.
[00:11:47] But I was completely wrong because I was so shocked that when I
[00:11:51] saw a ranga, Farhad as Ranga, because he was fully power packed.
[00:11:55] He was dancing. He was you know, all for the stunts and he
[00:11:59] was doing all the mass scenes. I was truly shocked because I
[00:12:02] was like, okay, Farhad is such an entertaining performer, he
[00:12:05] can do anything. It's what I felt because you know,
[00:12:08] Ranga like you said, it's a complicated character. He is
[00:12:10] funny. He is serious at times. He is an emotional person also
[00:12:14] because you know, when he when the boys tell him that he won't
[00:12:18] they want to they want to study and you know, and they don't
[00:12:21] want him anymore. He turns emotional but then he goes on
[00:12:26] to do a big fight and then he comes back. And then he sort of
[00:12:29] like you said, regroups himself and he is composed and he
[00:12:32] leaves he but he doesn't leave them as such because I
[00:12:35] think somewhere it's the fact that he also wants a life like
[00:12:39] them and he misses out on life like this is why they he took
[00:12:43] them along with him. And initially he did want them to
[00:12:47] succeed and you know, study and do well but the fact that
[00:12:50] they were so impressed by his lifestyle and the things that
[00:12:52] he do he does eventually he just gave in and you know, took
[00:12:57] them all in and he just wanted them to be a part of his
[00:12:59] gang. And the fact that his character doesn't want
[00:13:02] anybody to leave the gang also says a lot about him
[00:13:05] like he's very emotional and he needs people to be there and
[00:13:08] you know, he tells that people are there for him only because
[00:13:11] of his money and not because of the person he is. And I think
[00:13:14] only a person like Fahad could have pulled off such a
[00:13:16] complicated character because Ranga is not a really, really
[00:13:19] funny person. It's the things that he does or you
[00:13:22] know, everything that he does is really funny but
[00:13:24] inherently if you look at it, it's not like really funny.
[00:13:27] He's a good who he who beats up little children or not
[00:13:30] children but you know college college going students or
[00:13:33] you know, he kills people, he kills brother and things like
[00:13:36] that. So he's not a very funny person. It's things that he
[00:13:39] do does that makes everything funny and I think Fahad has
[00:13:43] really gave his all for this performance and I think I
[00:13:47] saw in an interview that he said he's really tried a
[00:13:51] lot for this movie. He's really, you know, gone out of
[00:13:54] his comfort zone to play this character. And I believe
[00:13:57] him now because none of that now that I've seen the
[00:13:59] movie because it was just mesmerizing to see him
[00:14:02] like that it was fully power packed. And I think
[00:14:04] there were only few scenes where you could actually see
[00:14:06] Fahad Fahasila and all the other times it was actually the
[00:14:09] character Ranga that you could see Ranga the goon who
[00:14:12] could do anything who's very powerful and he's very
[00:14:14] blinky and you know, the proper paka, Bahlur Goon if
[00:14:18] you know. So it was very wonderful.
[00:14:21] Yeah, one brilliant thing that Jitu Madhavan did in this
[00:14:24] movie is that the comedy are not made for the sake of
[00:14:28] comedy. So they are ingrained in the whole
[00:14:31] plot line in the whole narrative. So you don't know
[00:14:36] when you started chuckling or laughing loud, but they
[00:14:40] happen along with the story line as the story
[00:14:45] progresses. So that's one good aspect about this
[00:14:49] film. Now I won't say that this is a very, very, I
[00:14:52] mean, as I said earlier, very philosophically rich
[00:14:57] film or narrative, but I just an entertainer and he had
[00:15:01] the purpose in his mind very clear from the very
[00:15:05] beginning. So people who want to enjoy fun and
[00:15:10] frolic and want to engage, want to get engaged, want
[00:15:13] to get immersed in a different world for some
[00:15:16] time. This is a good film. So now what I disliked
[00:15:20] about the movie was the BGM. The music, the
[00:15:24] songs are okay with the plot line. But the BGM, I
[00:15:28] think maybe, I don't know if it's because of the
[00:15:32] quality of the theater where I watched the film, but
[00:15:34] the BGM was actually jarring and I mean taking my
[00:15:38] piece away. So I couldn't enjoy most of the
[00:15:41] film because of the BGM. So how was the movie
[00:15:44] experience for you? Where did you watch it and
[00:15:47] how was it?
[00:15:47] Well, Patu Kumar, I'm so shocked that you told
[00:15:49] that you did not like the BGM because for me,
[00:15:52] the one thing that I really loved about the movie
[00:15:54] was the BGM and I don't know, like I said it was
[00:15:56] really loud and it was really loud. And I think
[00:16:00] that kind of music was needed to show that
[00:16:03] mass elements and I think it was really fun to
[00:16:07] have that sort of a loud music because you
[00:16:09] know when the character, he's a very simple
[00:16:12] person, not repeat, he's a very normal person
[00:16:15] because like the other goons that we've seen
[00:16:17] in other movies, he's not very physically
[00:16:20] he's not really big or he's very simple, but he's
[00:16:22] very lean and you wouldn't think of him like if
[00:16:25] he wore other clothes, you wouldn't think of him
[00:16:27] as a goon. And in the other some of the flashbacks,
[00:16:30] you see him in normal clothes, you wouldn't
[00:16:32] you wouldn't be able to picture him as a goon.
[00:16:35] And for us to think that this man has the
[00:16:38] capabilities to kill people or beat people,
[00:16:42] I think to have that effect, the BGM was
[00:16:44] very essential or it was very important to
[00:16:47] the movie and I think Sushant Shyam did a
[00:16:49] really great job at doing that because I
[00:16:52] really kept listening to the BGM even after
[00:16:54] watching the movie because it was really powerful.
[00:16:56] I felt, I don't know why he said he didn't like
[00:16:59] it but I think one of the standard elements
[00:17:01] had to be the BGM and the music.
[00:17:05] I think I like the music in the songs in
[00:17:07] Romance better than the movies, the songs
[00:17:09] in Aveshiam. But I think the song Galata,
[00:17:13] I really like that song and the songs for
[00:17:16] really working well with the movie.
[00:17:18] I'd say but it wasn't really terrific or
[00:17:20] something but it was like, okay you'll listen
[00:17:22] to where you'll enjoy the songs.
[00:17:25] But the BGM, I think I really enjoyed it.
[00:17:28] I don't know if the quality of the
[00:17:30] theater, I don't know but I think I watched
[00:17:32] in a very normal theater but I really liked it.
[00:17:34] Okay maybe that's a personal choice.
[00:17:37] It can vary. But I think the BGM was powerful
[00:17:39] but for me I found it too much powerful.
[00:17:42] So maybe okay that's a different thing.
[00:17:45] Also I don't know whether that's the only
[00:17:47] way to end this movie. It's kind of
[00:17:50] catharsis, I mean after such a heavy
[00:17:54] load of action sequences you needed
[00:17:57] that light moments. But I felt that
[00:18:00] that made the film so light.
[00:18:03] I mean the way you have been enjoying
[00:18:05] the movie so far was a bit, I mean
[00:18:08] rendered very light at that moment.
[00:18:12] What do you say?
[00:18:13] Well Patmugamma if you think about it
[00:18:15] I don't know if there was any other
[00:18:17] there might have been other ways to
[00:18:18] end the movie like showing Ranga in a
[00:18:20] different light or things like that.
[00:18:22] But I think for me it felt like
[00:18:25] it's the beginning of something else
[00:18:26] like a sequel because it was very
[00:18:29] important to establish him as a
[00:18:30] character, what he does and the
[00:18:32] things that he can do, what he's
[00:18:34] capable of. Obviously they might be
[00:18:36] planning for a part two as well so
[00:18:38] I think like in Aadha I think the
[00:18:41] movie first we didn't quite work out
[00:18:43] but we were very much familiar with
[00:18:45] we became very familiar with the
[00:18:46] character of Shajibap and then
[00:18:48] second movie happened. I think Aaveishan
[00:18:50] 2 is kind of like that and I even
[00:18:52] read that somebody, some people saying
[00:18:54] that Aaveisham had this like what
[00:18:57] Rajamarni came was for was to
[00:18:59] Mammootty and I think I don't know
[00:19:01] if Ranga's character was as powerful
[00:19:03] as that but to an extent I would
[00:19:05] say but to an extent I would agree
[00:19:07] but then again the ending of the
[00:19:09] movie I felt like for a sequel this was
[00:19:11] fine because there's something more to
[00:19:13] it and we'd be expecting something
[00:19:15] more so for me this was like fine.
[00:19:17] Okay then if it's so let's wait for
[00:19:19] the sequel or the next I mean
[00:19:22] franchise of this movie and
[00:19:25] now I think maybe this movie is
[00:19:28] a testament of Pahat's ability
[00:19:31] to pull off any character
[00:19:35] that's given to him. So
[00:19:37] this won't be a great character but
[00:19:40] it proves his versatility
[00:19:43] of playing any kind of roles
[00:19:46] that's given to him. So
[00:19:48] thanks for listening to Star Action
[00:19:50] Cut produced and hosted by me Patma
[00:19:51] Kumar with technical production by
[00:19:53] Ida Bruce Studios for
[00:19:55] www.onmanurama.com
[00:19:57] for more podcast on movies
[00:20:00] and be sure to come back for the
[00:20:01] next episode of Star Action Cut
[00:20:03] that will be out on the next
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