Oru Vadakkan Pennu

Story: A young North Indian woman reaches Kerala in search of her lover. The movie goes on to show the challenges that life throws at her and her daughter.


Review: It is often said that situations decide the course of life. The movie Oru Vadakkan Pennu, written and directed by Irshad Hameed Mailanji, revolves around this idea.

It begins with a North Indian woman who comes to Kerala to meet her lover. A series of events post her arrival pushes her and her daughter into extremely troublesome situations. How do they deal with them? Oru Vadakkan Pennu presents this story.

The Irshad Hameed movie tries to paint a picture on how challenging life can be for women but ends up communicating confusion. He does his best to bring an emotional connection between the characters and situations but fails miserably. What spoils the script is his effort to fill the canvas with numerous thoughts and over-the-top dialogues, devoid of emotions.

The characters, especially the North Indians who appear in the first half, are not convincing both in terms of acting and dialogue delivery. The situations lack depth as well. The loud background score hardly enhances the ambience and scenes are clumsily put together. Actors, especially those cast as sidekicks, aren’t up to the mark. The performances of Sona Nair and Vijay Babu, that too for a short span, is the only saving grace of the film.

Oru Vadakkan Pennu might have fared better as a short film.

- Elizabeth Thomas