 ‘Banaras’ - the second directorial venture from Nemom Pushparaj is a movie with that old fashioned storyline of a triangular love, and delves with the associated sacrifices that each one involved has to make.
With highly predictable story lines and with no engaging twists, the movie offers very little surprises to avoid a cold feet. The movie is all about Hari (Vineeth), a theatre activist who moves out of his village leaving his childhood sweet heart Devu (Navya), to secure his M. Phil degree on North Indian dances from the famous Banaras Hindu University. More than his fancy for continuing his studies with TBHU, Hari wants to unearth the details about his mother who died in the holy city when he was a child.
Hari by circumstances is forced to become a saviour and protector of a beauty named Amritha (Kavya Madhavan), a gifted dancer who is also studying in the same University. The movie goes on to tell the impact of these short acquaintances of Hari with the half Malayalee girl, which takes a toll on the life of the young man.
The movie fails to strike a chord with the audience, with the musical pilgrimage never happening on reel. The movie often languish into a mood of a travelogue with visuals of architectural marvels like Manikarnika Ghat, Saranath, Harishchandra Ghat, Thulsidas Ghat and BHU, though the real life of the holy city is missing from the screens. The director seems to have no clues on how to end up his seasoned narratives and clears all the running story tracks, in the banks of the holy river itself. The zero chemistry shared between its lead actors Vineeth and Kavya, without any clues of strong passion in between, also pulls down the interests on the plot. Vineeth however plays with sincerity, the role of a heavily flawed protagonist. Kavya appears over weight than usual, and doesn't have much to offer in her, one of final farewell films before marriage. However, it's Navya who steals the show with her excellent performances that live in up, the otherwise cliched sequences. The comic department involving Jagathy Sreekumar, Suraj Venjarammood, and Harisree Asokan are also mediocre.
The movie does have some excellent compositions by M. Jayachandran, especially Shivagangae, and Priyanoral sung by Shreya Ghoshal. Which are all very well visualised. But the movie never ever gives the feel of a musical, even with these lilting tunes. The BG scores by Ouseppachan also accentuate the mood of the film. The technical side of the movie is also in sync with the mood of the film.
Altogether, ‘Banaras’ ends up as an average film with a predictable cliched story, but with some good songs, visuals and performances which may entertain you, in parts.
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