Even the shoddiest of scripts might sometimes have their bright spots, if you care to look for it. Early on in Prathi Poovankozhi , Madhuri (Manju Warrier), the protagonist, is shown returning late at night on a bicycle with her family friend Gopi (Alencier), discussing their myriad problems.
Out of the blue, she asks him to sing a song. He breaks into a Christmas-themed song, because, well, this is a Christmas release.
Now, the bright spot here is that this is an early warning in the script on how unimaginatively and artificially most of the scenes in the movie are going to be staged.
Keyword is ‘staged’
The keyword is ‘staged’, since many scenes do appear so. Which is a tragedy, considering the fact that the movie talks about an important subject - sexual harassment of women at public places.
It is the kind of harassment after which society and even close family members often ask the victim to forget it, because it happens to every other woman, without realising that they are also giving the reason why it shouldn’t be brushed off.
In this movie, quite a few characters do echo such thoughts, but Madhuri is in no mood to forgive after one such incident.
She is determined to have her revenge, whatever be the extent she will have to go for it, making it even the sole point of her existence.
It was one sparkling idea, with meat enough for an engaging drama, yet the game seemed to have been lost back at the scripting stage. Such lost opportunities are sprinkled across the movie, right from Madhuri’s background as a saleswoman in a textile shop.
Instead, we get a rather pointless digression wherein she, on being coerced by Gopi, takes up a stitching assignment for a wedding and leaves it half way.
So much time is wasted on this part, which doesn’t really shed more light on the characters or have anything to do with the latter part of the story.
One-note character
Even the well-enacted roles like that of the local goon Antappan (Director Rosshan Andrrews himself) is an almost one-note character.
He is just supposed to look menacing all the time. Anusree’s character, as Madhuri’s close friend, seems to have been written with an aim to induce some humour, but all of it falls flat.
The script does make its point clearly, that even the smallest incidents of harassment can be traumatising for the ones at the receiving end, and that it should not be dismissed lightly.
The problem is that it all gets a rather loud treatment, giving it an outdated feel.
S.R.Praveen
