Cast: Nivin Pauly (Krishnan PP aka Kuttan), Dulqar
Salman (Arjun aka Aju), Fahadh Faasil (Das), Nazriya Nazim (Divya Prakash aka
Kunju), Nithya Menon (Natasha), Parvathy (RJ Sarah), Isha Talwar (Meenakshi),
Vijayaraghavan (Kuttan’s father), Maniyanpilla Raju (Prakash, Kunju’s Father), Praveena
(Shobha, Kunju’s mother), Sajid Yahiya
(Sami), Kalpana (Kuttan’s Mother), Prathap Pothen (Francis, Natasha’s father),
Vinaya Prasad (Mrs. Francis, Natasha’s mother)
Genre: Romance, Family Relationships
Direction: Anjali Menon
Production: Anwar Rasheed, Sophia Paul
Written by:
Anjali Menon
Editor: Mahesh Narayanan
Music: Gopi
Sundar
Cinematography: Sameer Thahir
Editor: Praveen Prabhakar
Studio: Anwar Rasheed Entertainment, Weekend Blockbusters
Distribution: A & A Release, August Cinema
Release Date: 30th
May, 2014
Language: Malayalam
Duration: 2 hours 51 minutes
Bangalore Days, a very youthful, vibrant,
peppy and entertaining movie by director Anjali Menon. She has tried to
beautifully capture various individual behaviours / perceptions, lovely
camaraderie / friendship among cousins, positive outlook towards life in spite
of personal hiccups / challenges, individuals having different outlook towards
a situation, passion to fulfill one’s dreams etc. She has successfully
justified various characters. The beauty of Anjali’s work is that she has not
tried to be preachy, but makes us believe that every individual has their own
frame of reference i.e. perception towards life. Anjali facilitates us to think
that it would be unfair to justify a particular outlook towards life / things,
rather every individual has a reason / logic behind his or her choices. The
title is almost justified with all the three main protagonists landing up in
Bangalore and the twists and turns happening in their lives in this city, which
is the utopia every Malayali youngster wishes to escape to in search of his
dreams (as projected in the movie).
The
movie begins with the narration of Kuttan aka Krishnan PP (Nivin Pauly), a
techie, who is in midst of a job interview and grabs the offer to join at
Bangalore after completing his training at Mysore. He is a hard-core Malayali
at heart, who loves everything about Kerala. Then he introduces his cousin
vivacious and bubbly Kunju aka Divya Prakash (Nazriya Nazim) who aspires to pursue
MBA from IIM and then be an entrepreneur. Another cousin carefree Aju aka Arjun
(Dulqar Salman) is shown to have the courage to create his own rules of life,
who pursues his dreams passionately, whether it is to be a graffiti-artist, or
bike-racing or repairing the bikes / vintage cars. Kuttan, Kunju and Aju have
great bonding since childhood, who took different paths after school, but yes,
their relationships remained intact. If Kuttan is shown as traditional Malayali
guy who wants Kerala touch in every aspects of his life, Aju is projected as a
rebel who doesn’t believe in giving answers to anyone, but he creates his own
sets of questions and answers, Kunju is traditional enough to bid adieu to her
IIM dreams and get married for parents’ sake to Das (Fahadh Faasil), yet
assertive enough to get her due share in relationship.
A
beautiful song ‘Mangalyam’ is there when Kuttan, Aju and Kunju dance together
during Kunju’s marriage celebrations. They look so good together. Ultimately,
all three of them reach Bangalore: Kuttan for his IT job, Aju for his
bike-repairing assignments, and Kunju shifting from Kerala to Das’ apartment in
Bangalore after marriage.
Das is
a workaholic, who loves his own privacy and remains confined to himself most of
the time. Kunju is just opposite, and extrovert, full of life and adaptive as
well. Das seems an odd man out amongst Kunju, Kuttan and Aju. Whenever Das goes
for outstation trips, three of them just hang out together and have a blast.
Lot of
light hearted as well as great moments are shown in the movie viz. Aju, Kuttan
and Kunju teasing each other, Kuttan’s fantasies about falling in love with the
Malayali Airhostess Meenakshi (Isha Talwar), Kunju inviting almost all the
neighbours for tea at home, RJ Sarah (Parvathy)’s compering with lot of positive
messages for the listeners, Aju falling in love with the positivity of Sarah
and his effort to surprise her with his impulsive visit to the studio etc.
Anjali
has definitely taken a very realistic and balanced approach in this movie. When
there are so many light moments in the movie, every character is also shown
facing a few challenges of their own viz. Aju’s impulsiveness and brash
attitude, Das not being able to get over his past of Natasha (Nithya Menon, his past is a pivotal point in the movie),
Kunju’s disappointments and void in her life due to stoic Das, Kuttan’s failed relationship, Shobha (Praveena, Kunju’s mother)’s obsession towards
astrology etc. Rather every character is
a story in itself.
Certain
serious instances viz. marital disharmony is also projected very lightly viz.
Kuttan’s father wanting to breathe after suffocating for years in marriage and
mother wanting to break free from the confines of a small village and to enjoy
the excitement of living in cities or even abroad. Script has fabulous humour
to project partners having different perspectives and outlooks.
The
movie has ensemble cast who have given magnificent performances. All of them
fit in so well with their characters.
Bangalore days, a great entertainer, perfectly blended with
emotions, passion, dreams, romance, positivities, family relationships etc … The
impact would linger on for sure…
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