Zachariyayude Garbhinikal

Story: The film is about a gynaecologist and the stories of pregnant women who come into his life.


Pregnancy and motherhood have a potent tenderness, something that makes Zachariyayude garbhinikal a likable film. A gynaecologist named Zacharia (Lal) has to deal with four completely different women, their pregnancies closely linked to their destinies.


A rich woman conceives from the friend of her husband and she is torn by guilt and indecision whether to have the child or not. An adolescent school girl tells him that she wants her baby, but won’t reveal the identity of the man who had impregnated her. A nurse fakes pregnancy for convenience and comfort, and a woman comes out of convent life to conceive artificially.


The narrative has a definite richness, each tale adding to the layers and each character melting into the flow. This surge of warmth, however, rises to such a degree that there is a marked hesitation while dealing with the unsavoury aspects of fate that rules the lives of these women.


Be it the school girl, who is ready to be a mother at 17, or the woman who has to play the wife to a wronged, caring husband, they appear cossetted in a way that the bitterness of their lives is hardly felt. There is a dearth of turbulence which is surprising given the catastrophic nature of incidents that occur in their lives.


Aneesh Anwar makes up for this by whipping up moments dripping with dollops of warmth. The bleached tone of frames add to the lure, as the mother rubs her lips over the chubby cheeks of her baby or when a crying toddler slips into silence suckling at his mother's finger.


The film also benefits from a cast which is perfectly at ease with the narrative; almost every actor living up to the demands of their characters.