Varthamanam

Story : Faiza Sufiya, the grand-daughter of a prominent freedom fighter, has come to a Delhi based campus for her doctorate. But her secular ideals are constantly in conflict with the facist political temperament prevailing in the university.

Review: “Ask not who the bell tolls for
The bell tolls for thee!”
When Amal (Roshan Mathew) uses these lines from a poem by John Donne as a dissent slogan, he sets the mood and atmosphere of the film as fiercely political. Varthamanam has battled its fair share of storms at the censor board, before it has reached the big screen. It drew flak from Adv V Sandeep Kumar, a CBFC member and a BJP SC Morcha state vice-president who took offence at the film’s scriptwriter Aryadan Shoukath, a politician himself, and then called the film “anti-national”.

A secular idealist, Faiza Sufiya (Parvathy Thiruvoth) comes to Delhi for her doctorate on Abdu Rahman Saheb, a freedom fighter from Malabar. But soon her secular ideals put her at loggerheads with fundamentalists from not only from her community, but also from Hindutva proponents. The events that follow remind us of the news we watch, read and hear all too frequently around us.

Varthamanam is not here to entertain us. As a cinema it clears itself off the duty to regale and tickle our funny bones pretty early on. Varthamanam wants us to remember Rohit Vemula, Kalburgi, Gouri Lankesh and many other victims of the Gauraksha Gang and other fasicst forces. It questions our silent compliance, and it does it well.

Much like his previous films, Aryadan Shoukath follows a simple and linear storytelling. His craft lies more in knowing the people he writes about than the very art of storytelling. Just a year shy of finishing a decade as a director, Sidhartha Siva needs no introduction as a director who knows his storytelling. Sidhartha Siva has never shied from his political stand even in his previous cinemas. However, with Varthamanam the writer and director are expressing their rage and dissent more vocally. Parvathy Thiruvoth and Roshan Mathew are as resplendent as one may expect from them. If only their characters had more definition, they might have had more meat to their characters. It is a refreshing change to see Sanju Sivaram in the character of a serious politician with little scope for comedy. Varthamanam employs very little background music. So the minimal music used here is non-intrusive and blended well into the narrative. Azhagappan wields the camera to visually convey the mood of the cinema effectively. And the parts shot in Mussoorie offer a picturesque break to the otherwise fierce and boiling political temperament of the campus that the movie otherwise talks about.

Vathamanam seeks to raise questions and wake those sleeping from their political ignorance. The cinema even cites history to explain the centuries of tug of war for power. However, the cherry on the icing is definitely the climax of the cinema that is piercing, shrill and loud enough to make you stand in ovation. Faiza asks the audience a closing question and the screen goes dark. +1 for the punchy ending alone that makes this movie one to watch!