Women Empowerment : with a bit of Endosulfan

How Old Are You ? (HOAY)

Credits
Listin Stephen (Production) under the banner of Magic Frames
Roshan Andrews (Direction) | Bobby Sanjay (Story, Screenplay, Dialogues)
R Diwakar (Cinematography) | Gopi Sundar (Music & Background Score)

1996 to 1998 was a good time for Mollywood and the industry saw a huge shift in behaviour - scripts were being crafted for a lady who showed exemplary acting skills! If she has to return after a 14 years of silence, it has to be with a big bang. How Old Are You (HOAY) does do justice to that gala comeback of Manju Warrier to a large extend!

Nirupama Krishnan, used to be a fire-in-the-belly type economics graduate of year 1998. When the story starts, Nirupama is 36, a UDC clerk with the Revenue department a run-of-the-mill working woman who lives a very mediocre and mechanical life, supporting her husband Rajeev (Kunchacko Boban) and a 13 year old daughter Lakshmi (Amritha Anil). Rajeev is in an attempt to migrate to Ireland to pursue his dream job and Lakshmi is quite excited about the plan. Nirupama's lethargy, age factor, some stupidity that creeps in due to her innocence and carelessness (all interwoven by some interesting, unheard and amusing instances) stand in the way of Rajeev and Lakshmi's plans. Rajeev explodes, creating agony in Nirupama and leaves to Ireland taking Lakshmi with him. Nirupama’s journey to make a personal signature in her life is what gets unfolded later in the movie.

Bobby-Sanjay & Roshan Andrews combination has gifted us with excellent works like Notebook & Mumbai Police in the past. (I don’t think they did Casanova deliberately!) Not necessarily from the same combination, there were movies like Traffic, Ayaalum njaanum thammil, Ente veedu appoontem, Udayanaanu thaaram and more! These were movies that had a fresh breath of air, and exhibited a class in experimentation, delivering profound messages with a grace of subtility. This element is grossly missing when it comes to HOAY. The biggest setback of this movie is it storyline that sound like a fairy tale. The series of events in the movie go on a fantasy mode many a times – and the audience is on a mode where they watch the movie for Manju Warrier, without really getting involved in the theme. You have a great message to convey and have managed to rope in an actress who has amazing potential - but the makers seem to derail on how to do it. Quite similar to a case where you have bought a high end smart phone and haven’t activated GPRS on it!

The story covers a week’s happenings in the first half without drag, while it has to convey another 18 months in the second half it leaves you boring at times. Somewhere, there is a mix of messaging that happens – was it supposed to be chasing your dreams, empowering yourselves or doing organic farming? Didn’t the series of incidents happen for Nirupama’s good, rather than she going behind something and achieving it? What was her dream BTW? – Questions remain!

The highlights of the movie:

• Manju Warrier –OF COURSE! Thumbs up to the fine portrayal of Nirupama – where she has to laugh, cry, struggle and the lead actor is quite graceful in taking the audience along with her emotions. A good comeback. 
• Kunchakko Boban – steals the show as the male chauvinist Rajeev. It’s a treat to watch him do the character to perfection. 
• A few well-executed moments - Sasikala coming back to Nirupama's bedside at the hospital, Nirupama-President first encounter, Nirupama confiding in Sasikala after retrospecting her 14 years, Nirupama - Jayachandran friendship etc. being a few of them. 
• The casting team does a good work in the right pick of supporting characters except for one or two. Sidhartha Basu’s cameo was a great idea! Muthumani as Sasikala, Thesni as Rani, Vinay Fort as Jayachandran, Kunchan as the father-in-law – all do justice to the roles. Special mention to Sethulakshmi who plays Madhavi Amma, and Kalaranjini plays the mother-in-law role – both giving some chuckles on your face!
• Liked the makeup technique of adding it more on Manju’s face (since the theme is about age and expiry date) and leaving the other characters to near-mute makeup.
• Sameera Saneesh does a great job when it comes to costumes, except for one character! Manju’s saree collection is worth a mention.
• Gopi Sundar yet again proves that he is a specialist when it comes to background score. The BGM gives a fresh touch to many of the comedy scenes and adds to the emotions during the second half.
• Overall, one should be thankful to Bobby, Sanjay, Roshan and of course to Listin Stephen for making a comeback of Manju happen this way. If it were in the wrong hands, we would have had a sentimental melodrama! As the movie makes soaring profits, this young guy - Listin Stephen needs a round of applause for ensuring that he spends his money on good attempts that can definitely bring back multi folds of the investment. The industry will go places if we can create more Listins J
• Don’t know whether to write it as a good point – there are some dialogues and situations that are planted to ensure that the movie has a resemblance to Manju’s professional and her much deliberated personal life. It obviously goes an extra mile in attracting mass audience sentiments towards the movie. Not sure how much of it was required!

The not-so goods:

• The story line - there was a lot of scope in this movie to make it many folds better. More logic and natural course of actions would have made it really a deserving come-back for Manju.
• Off late our movie makers tend to depend a lot on social media. It may be a viral trend, but these threads may go outdated once new ideas become the trend! In other words, such movies may not live through ages. 
• On actors - Kaniha’s placement in the movie - characterization, appearance, costumes and her acting! It’s like you are a pure vegetarian ordering Idly-Sambar from a restaurant and spot a big lump of beef in it (pun intended!). Suraaj scene was unwarranted, and overdone
• The track – Vijanathayil, done by Shreya Ghoshal is pretty average and lacks clarity. Why Shreya? I think it is high time to stop using her like a vending machine that gives songs.

Verdict: This will fall into one of those rare movies in Malayalam that is totally focussed on women and hence will be remembered. For those who feel that they have kept aside their dreams, this movie is definitely recommended – women folks especially.
This probably is Bobby-Sanjay-Roshan-Listin’s movie for the masses. Sans the storyline, HOAY is a well rendered movie, and won’t leave you disappointed. Just that you shouldn’t think too deep into it. If you do that, it will leave you with a lot of irritations – quite similar to your frustration of eating a lot of pesticide filled vegetables daily, very well knowing the tale of its origin!