Fluff, candy, romance, a time when the world is bright and colourful and the cares of the world include wooing, sleeping and having fun is 'Aanandam' - all of which are put together in a light-hearted and entertaining manner. This one for the young where the world is their oyster and a deeper world doesn't exist. An industrial visit (read fun trip) to Hampi and Goa and sequences that happen along the course of four days is what the movie is about. The narrative doesn't delve deep and is happy to skim along the surface offering a 'Happy Days' kind of nostalgia and feel.
A group of engineering classmates plan their industrial visit and the leader is Varun (Arun), couples Devika (Anu) and Gautham (Roshan), the funny guy Kuppi, the charming Diya (Siddhi) and the smitten Akshay (Thomas) and others including the bus driver and teachers dotting the scene. This is the kind of happy feel good movie that one has seen and enjoyed a lot. There is enough colour and humour to keep up the pace of this youthful movie. What has come out well is the essence of youth that the director Ganesh Raj has captured.
The confusions, problems, love and changes in relationship equations all have come out well in a light hearted manner, ultimately it being all reduced to a nostalgic fervour as the credits rolls. There might not be a coherent kind of intense plot or a issue that needs solving, but that doesn't come in the way of this kind of a movie which stands well on dialogues, songs and energy. Also the cast has done well playing the characters with abandon. All of them are credible on screen.
We have seen campus movies aplenty and only those which feels from the perspective of the youth and revels in that zest has succeeded. This one joins the bandwagon and will be a marked one in the days to come. The movie has managed to evoke a kind of feel-good premise peppered with a lot of nostalgia for the viewers. This one will surely be lapped up by the youngsters. Debutant director Ganesh Raj, the fresh cast and technical team can take a bow for that neat attempt.
'Aanandam' may not be everybody's cup of tea and enjoying the movie will depend on how much you enjoy movies like 'Thatattin Marayathu', 'Happy days' etc. This one belongs to that genre. There is a lot of freshness that is infused with the sparkly cast and youthful zest which makes this movie a sure bet.
