‘Maniyarayile Ashokan’ movie review: Slips and falls on its own quirkiness

The curse of the quirky idea in cinema is that it does not take much for it to slip into absurd territory, even though there is half a chance for it to become something special too. In Maniyarayile Ashokan , writer Vineeth Krishnan and director Shamzu Zayba had one such idea, which could have been developed into something unique — probably in a short film — but squander it to deliver a rather flat, run-of-the-mill, feel-good offering. Whether it manages the feel-good part is another question.

At the centre of the film, streaming now on Netflix, is Ashokan (Jacob Gregory), a village office clerk, who is obsessed with the idea of getting married. Unlike the situation in reality, the pressure for the 30-something to get married does not come from the family. Everything from peer pressure, after seeing his friends and cousins getting married, to his own dreams fuel this obsession.

As luck would have it, horoscope plays spoilsport, setting the stage for what could have been a film that represents the plight of youth who become victims of societal pressure to get married and the superstitions that spoil many a prospective marriage. This is the point where the script banks on its quirkiness, with Ashokan falling in love with and marrying a plantain tree, to get over some kind of curse in his horoscope.

There are indeed one or two points where the film manages to make us empathise with the protagonist who is fast losing his sanity, but at the same time, one cannot miss the fact that it does become absurd and unbelievable beyond a point. In Kerala, where there is no dearth of jokes on planting a plantain tree, instead of taking up some pointless endeavour, this script writes jokes about itself. One wonders whether the film has some deeper message on organic farming, for one of Ashokan’s friend’s relationships is framed around the exchange of a coconut sapling.

Producer Dulquer Salman appears in a cameo that does not add much to the film, while there are just too many songs to accommodate female stars who have agreed for a cameo. In fact, there are two pointless songs in the first ten minutes of the film that really have nothing to do with the plot. One is explained away as a back story of the village, while another is the protagonist’s extended dream.

Maniyarayile Ashokan slips and falls on its own quirkiness, although some clever navigation could have saved it.

Maniyarayile Ashokan is streaming on Netflix