Uyare opens with a long list of acknowledgment credits among which the first one is Pillechan aka Rajesh Pillai. And when Pillai's erstwhile associate Manu Ashokan ventures into direction one can't help but notice that he's been highly influenced by the former's school of filmmaking. The credit lists goes on silently for some more time and gratitude is expressed to the Sheroes Hangout in Agra run by acid attack survivors.
Ever since Uyare was announced it was revealed that the story is based on an acid attack survivor. But Uyare goes beyond that. It's about a dream, achieving the goal in one's life, creating individual spaces, lending hands at the time of crisis, taking decisions, being yourself, loving beyond conditions and breaking the idea of the so called set norms of 'beauty'. The beauty here is like how Tovino's character Vishal quotes the famous yogi and writer Sadhguru, “one that exudes from the heart.”
While all attention goes to the protagonist Pallavi Raveendran (Parvathy), Vishal (Tovino) too steals the show. A major chunk of Vishal's role is revealed in the second half only and how he steers Pallavi's life forms the crux.
Vishal, to say, is a looser. Apart from listening to his father and following his orders, Vishal barely has an individuality. He even had to leave his girlfriend for the sake of his father. But things do change when he takes his own decisions and he earns respect for that.
Pallavi dreams of becoming a pilot since her childhood. And she is on the verge of achieving her dream when it is torn apart by her own beloved. “If it was done by an enemy, I would have forgiven, but this I can't,” says Pallavi and we can't agree more with her. Pallavi is attacked by her boyfriend Govind (Asif Ali) and she overcomes the attack both physically and mentally.
In a time, when relationships cross the line from love to possessiveness and ends up traumatic, the film stands a testimony to those who survived the burns and attacks. The survival journey isn't easy either. Right at the time when Pallavi makes her mind that, 'it's not over yet', she is let down by people around her.
The film also brings forth a warm relationship between a father and a daughter. “Why didn't you ever tell me such things till now”, asks Pallavi's father (Siddique) to which Pallavi replies, “I hated you back then” and later her father fights it out for her.
Amazing performances from each of the cast carries the whole movie. The film undoubtedly belongs to Parvathy and she's the star here. But we can't really stop applauding Tovino and Asif too. While Tovino is a charmer making us drool over him, Asif is a crook and makes us hate his character.
Govind reminds one of Michael Agnelo played by Fahadh Faasil in Shyamaprasad's 'Artist'.
The biggest strength of Uyare lies in its screenplay with minimal yet powerful dialogues. The script by Sanjay-Bobby is crisp and well etched by director Manu. Uyare is highly engaging right from the beginning to end.
Take Off's director Mahesh Narayanan is the man at the editing table here and you can keep aside the similarities if any between the two films. Mukesh Muraleedharan's frames and Gopi Sundar's music will appeal to you.
Uyare marks the debut of S-Cube Films Productions, owned by Shenuga, Shegna and Sherga, the three daughters of veteran producer P V Gangadharan of Grihalakshmi Productions. It’s a first for Malayalam cinema that three women are producing a film and special mention for them for choosing a movie based on a strong theme. Dirty hands, the group behind the prosthetics for Parvathy, also deserves cheers.
In spite of a predictable storyline, the outlook that Uyare offers is commendable to say the least.