The Rainmaker

Movie: Ritu
Language: Malayalam
Date: 21- Aug -2009 Show: 9:00 pm

Review
A story teller who tries to touch upon too many ideas, themes and issues and looses the focus on the central theme. This for me is a one line gist of what the new Shyama Prasad movie 'Ritu' is.
'Ritu' is the story of Friendship and how it changes according to the times. In terms of the kind of youth oriented themes made in Malayalam, "Ritu' is definitely the kind of change one is looking for.It could easily have been the second 'Passenger' of the year but falls short terribly.

Life Changing Friendships
Many of us may have friendships that changed our lives for ever. That for once is a hugely relatable theme. 3 friends who have a 'hideout'. In this case it’s a stunning lake side with a dilapidated hanger near by. They share their best moments there. Their dreams, ambitions, love, hatred and despair. Even though the initial portions of the movie are affected by some below par acting by the new comers and issues related to dubbing, still we can over look these being their debut. Hence, as the friendship tale is shown, the first 45 minutes of the movie are quite enjoyable.

Lost Focus
Where the script and the director loose it is towards the end of the first half. The narrative meanders in to subjects like failed communists (Sharat's father and brother), people affected by land acquisition for IT parks and so on. Some of the scenes are so unimaginatively written that you would end up laughing. The sudden collapse of Sharat's father in the hospital and the message conveyed by the nurse, the rescue act by the doctors, everything is so shabby that it evokes laughter instead of the desired shock.

The interval point is somewhat fine and after that the movie again keeps moving in to unwanted territories. An over ambitious lady CEO who compromised on family life to get success. Her suffering husband and so on. Communist brother of Sharat and his friends boozing the night away. All this while the friendship theme takes a back seat.

The Single Friend
Ritu's friendship involves 3 people. Sharat, Varsha and Sunny but where 'Ritu' falls short is that it’s only the story of Sharat. Mostly Varsha and Sunny are shown only from the angle of what Sharat sees. Varsha and Sunny's characters are left underdeveloped. This for me is the major miss for Ritu’s script. Hence, when the friendship suffers, we empathize for Sharat and not for the other characters because they were never developed in our minds.

Music - Under utilized
‘Ritu’ has at least 3 superb tracks but Shyama Prasad commits the crime of wasting most of these. 'Venal Kattil' is lost in between sequences (though these are funny ones). 'Chanjalam' is again shown only partly as a passing affair. And finally when tracks are shown in focus, 'Pularumo' and ' Ku Ku Ku' come back to back within a gap of 2-3 minutes. The director doesn't know how to use a good soundtrack and commits hara-kiri with it. For me, who am an avid music fan, this is a major disappointment. Rahul Raj, though deserves kudos for the good tracks.

+Ves
The IT industry is shown in much better reality than in the movies like ‘Minnaminnikkottam’. And for once a youth oriented movie looks somewhat real. Performances are not breath taking but somewhat competent.
Nishan, as Sharat, the central character of the movie, delivers in places and falters in others. Rima as Varsha is a talent to look out for if she works on her dubbing. Asif as Sunny is also pretty much convincing.

Conclusion
'Ritu' will impress you in parts and will make you loose your interest for major parts. How we wish that Shyama Prasad has developed Varsha's and Sunny's characters and had kept focusing on friendship instead of other things. For once, there is a meaningful climax and for those who have had life changing friendships, the last scene may moist your eyes.

‘Ritu’ could have been a turning point for Malluwood and had everything going for it but what it remains is a hugely lost opportunity.

Verdict - Rating - 2/5
Opinion - Very Average.

‘Ritu’ - Of what could have been a wonder!!