Ormayil Oru Sisiram

Story: Nithin, a struggling filmmaker is reminiscing his first and unrequited love, Varsha through the days of his plus two classes. This is their coming-of-age story of romance.

Review: "What are you doing Mohanetta, all that fertilizer to the coconut sapling will only wilt it away!" says Nithin's mother to his dad, as the young boy, who liked humanities, goes for his higher secondary computer science class. In a way it is this dialogue by Nithin's mother is what defines the movie Ormayil Oru Shishiram. While it has romance and nostalgia in plenty, it is also a take on the rat-and-mouse race towards success that our generation is acclimatized to.

Directed by Vivek Aryan, Ormayil Oru Shishiram is a coming-of-age romance. Drenched in nostalgia and brimming with romance the film is scripted by CG Sivaprasad and Appu Sreenivas Nair and the story is by Vishnu Raj NR.

Nithin is a struggling filmmaker at the brink of his first film. Ormayil Oru Shishiram is his reminiscence of his first and unrequited love, Varsha. Nostalgia and romance is formulaic concoction in cinema. And so it is obvious for the film to be compared to Premam. But thankfully, the stories have no obvious parallels with each other, than the story that stretches from the teenager years of the protagonists to their 30s.

Ormayil Oru Shishiram plays heavily into nostalgia, bordering into clichés galore. But to their advantage, Ormayil Oru Shishiram has visuals dripping of silent romance as well. Deepak Parambol is clearly comfortable as the teenaged Nithin from Kannur. He brings in a shy innocence of the age and freshness with his character. Debutant Anaswara Ponnambath, the female lead, is instantly adorable because of the genuineness she brings to the character Varsha. Her Varsha is a very real character with flesh and blood. Even though the story is from Nithin's point of view, Varsha's character gets a roundness that allows Anaswara space to manifest into the audiences' imagination. Kudos to the writers and director who have brought out the best in their characters and brought them to life in their fullness.

However, the story falls short to the heavy expectations the others set. At the end, the movie depends heavily on nostalgia, completely ignoring every other plot device.

Ormayil Oru Shishiram is for the hopeless romantic in you. It is for everyone who has loved in silence, unable to speak it out loud. It is for the silent lovers who have lost their love to the rat race of life.