Alamara

STORY : The film is about how a cupboard, gifted to the groom by the bride’s family, drives a wedge between the young couple and aggravates the misunderstandings that arise from petty ego issues of the duo’s parents.

REVIEW : Filmmaker Midhun Manuel Thomas’ movies have always banked on entertaining the audience with characters that they could relate to – be it the quirky Aadu Oru Bheegarajeeviaanu or the feel-good Ann Maria Kalippilaanu. His latest outing Alamara too has a slew of characters that would exist in a middle class household in Kerala, with their reactions to certain situations being the core of the film.

The movie starts off with an abandoned cupboard, voiced by Salim Kumar, narrating how it came to be in its current condition. Its tale is tied to the film’s protagonists – Arun Pavithran (Sunny Wayne) and Swati (Aditi Ravi).

Arun is introduced as a single young bank employee, who, in spite seeing 47 prospective brides, just can’t seem to get hitched. After his sister and mother asks him to help Swati find a PG hostel in Bengaluru, he falls for her and soon things lead to their marriage. However, all is not well as the duo’s parents get engaged in an ego tussle – from fixing the wedding date to who gets to call who ‘chechi’.

The problems only aggravate when a massive cupboard, which is gifted to Arun by Swathi’s parents as part of the wedding, is brought to his house. How the couple’s life change with the cupboard’s arrival forms the plot.

While the movie has some good laugh-out-loud moments, courtesy Manikantan, Saiju Kurup and Renji Panicker, the plot is predictable, making the movie a less engaging affair. The jokes, when Arun and his band of friends get together, seem forced at times but the situational humour between Arun’s parents – well played by Seema G Nair and Renji Panicker – plays out well.

The protagonists too are restricted due to the formulaic screenplay, with both Sunny and Aditi doing what they could in the limited space they are offered to perform. Sunny looks natural as the passive guy in the relationship trying to appease his wife, in-laws and parents.

A parallel narrative about what happens when a plot owned by Arun and his gang of friends becomes a bone of contention, seemed heading for a payoff till the filmmaker decided to play it down to focus more on how the couple’s relationship panned out. All in all, Alamara is an average fare that has a few laughs and winds up with the oft-repeated message that problems in a couple’s relationship can be solved between themselves.