Red, yellow, green, blue and a whole lot of guppy hues nestled in a sleepy sea side village seeps right within as you watch 'Guppy'. This soulful movie is an engaging watch with a heart-touching climax and a tale of intriguing characters. Told beautifully by Johnpaul George, one wouldn’t feel that this is his debut venture. It was evident right from the first that ‘Guppy’ is not the usual run of the mill story with an established hero. In a way ‘Guppy’ doesn’t have such a heroic figure. Everyone is heroic in their own way. That said, this is the story of Michael, also nicknamed Guppy (Chetan).
Michael is a self made boy with a gritty countenance. He is accompanied by a group of equally pesky boys. Growing up in the colourful village, life isn’t easy for him with a paralysed mother (Rohini), a job at the tea-stall and a wish to buy his mother an advanced wheel chair, for which he grows guppy in the nearby drainage. Things take a change with the arrival of a civil engineer, Tejas Varkey (Tovino Thomas) to build a bridge. There are conflicts of interest between him and Michael. Tejas too has a back story which makes us realise towards the end that he and Michael are in essence one entity, maybe two sides of the same coin, flipped in the same direction. Both have performed well. Chetan is someone to watch out for. Tovino has arrived and this performance oriented role is sure to make people sit up and take notice.
Apart from these two, there are a few other characters who stays with us. There is the helpful government employee (Sudheer Karamana), who helps Michael to sell his Guppies, also pocketing some returns for his help, the well meaning and considerate Muslim (Sreenivasan) with a veiled beautiful granddaughter Amina, who is the dream of all the boys in the coast, and of course the friendly stall owner (Alancier). The casting is spot on and they all fit in perfectly.
The plot has been conceived elaborately and one gets the feel of the place, making the movie more about the locality itself than a few assorted characters. The backdrop was previously used in ‘Mariammukku’. In ‘Guppy’, the frames are even more vibrant. What is interesting is the carnival like atmosphere and the colours doting the landscape. The polka dress, the guppies in the jars, the paintings, the azure sea and sky, the festival, and even the autos and streets catches the attention. Johnpaul has been able to build up a layered landscape so beautifully.
DOP Gireesh Ganagadharan takes the cake for presenting such a visually alluring spectacle. The frames each tell a story and the art department has done well to complement the feel. Edits are commendable too and so are the songs, especially the closing one. The climax makes up for some of the looseness of charatcerisation and the inconsistencies of behaviour. ‘Guppy’ is a gritty tale that touches the heart and soul. It makes a statement and one can hear it echo even after the movie is long done.
