`Veruthe Oru Bharya' is the unassuming title for a movie, narrated with intensity and integrity, from the very beginning to the end. It is one of the best films of recent times, dealing with domestic marriage discords resulting from mismatched characters of two people who stick to their incompatible agendas. It may hit too close to home for some; others might not key in on the psychology, but find it as a digestible fun-filled drama with light hearted moments.
The movie will definitely introspect at least some men who finds a glimpse of them on screen. Presenting Jayaram in a solid workable character, `Veruthe Oru Bharya' accomplishes to bring out the emotional chaos created by broken marital relationships on the victims and their children, somehow sidestepping all the related cliches.
The film focuses on the lives of a very few characters - Sugunan (Jayaram), an overseer with the electricity board, his wife Bindu (Gopika) and their teenage daughter Anju (Nivedita), Sugunan's colleagues and Bindu's family, comprising of her parents and her brother Ramesh (Madhu Warrier). Sugunan is a typical egoistic and ever complaining husband, who has his core of stipulations to his ever submissive wife. Sugunan considers Bindhu just as a person who is obliged to meet all the pressures in managing homely affairs. Neither he acknowledges his wife's efforts in maintaining the peaceful atmosphere at home nor does he help her in any of the related matters. He is more a hypocrite who never allows his talkative wife to engage with her friends or relatives or attend public functions. Never do Sugunan takes his wife for leisure to have a break from her routine pressures.
Having lost the ardor of a love they once knew together, the growing discord between Sugunan and Bindu leads to a point for Bindu, to break the cycle. She decides to take a break from their strain of their disagreements and return to her father (Innocent) leaving her husband to take care of her daughter. Sugunan takes it as another chance for a fight and tries to manage things, but in vain.
The highlight of the movie is that, a man and woman who have lost intimacy and passion in their marriage and their mild-mannered approach to dealing with themselves may feel uncomfortably familiar to most of the viewers. Well, there are light and humorous moments but it's a serious subject handled seriously. The tightly paced writing from K. Gireesh Kumar, the convincing directorial from Akku Akbar and acting are uniformly excellent. The only down points are the later half which drags a little at times and the complete preachy dialogues in the climax which makes melodrama seem mellow.
Akku Akbar in his first independent venture in direction is a revelation. With a heavily loaded script that take its principal characters to extremes situations, `Veruthe Oru Bharya' about confrontations, revelations and self-discovery, does feel particularly truthful. The director has immensely succeeded in creating the pitch-perfect "emotional atmospherics'" for the story to happen.
Jayaram, after a long gap, scores heavily in a role that is tailor made for his capabilities. He invites claps as never before, when imitating the singing styles of all heroes from yester year, Prem Nazir to today's Mammootty. Gopika looks evidently younger that what the role demands, but make better by convincing act in her complex title role as Bindu. She makes a poignant cake walk through the role, delivers majority of the dialogues and at times appear strong and scared at alternate scenes. Nivedita also shines as their daughter. Rahman and Ganesh kumar appear in short cameos.
A word of mention must also be made of Suraj Venjaramoodu, who once again has repeated his magic of creating a laugh riot, when ever on screen. He maintains his flourish in the act without tarnishing with the integrity of the character, he is in.
Shaji's evocative location cinematography is used to greater effect; the shadow -laden frames, actually becomes a character in the film-appearing somehow lovely and wistful at the same time. Art director Saloo K George excels with his sets while Ranjan Abraham in editing also does his bit to finely shape the movie .Popular album musician Shyam Dharman's songs are immensely popular, which very well suits the mood of the film. The only low point in the post production is the not so effective background scores.
All in all, `Veruthe Oru Bharya' is one of the best thought provoking family movies, surfaced in recent times.
Well recommended for viewers who are ready to share a glimpse of the maturely narrated entertainers.
