Review – Abhiyum Anuvum

Film: Abhiyum Anuvum
Director: B R Vijayalakshmi
Cast: Tovino Thomas, Pia Bajpai, Suhasini Maniratnam, Rohini, Prabhu and others.
Music: Dharan
Cinematography: Akilan

Director B R Vijayalakshmi, who returns to direction after a long break, tells a riveting story that touches upon a sensitive issue that one finds hard to digest. Interestingly, the film is based on a true-life incident.

Anu (Pia Bajpai) is an altruistic, cheerful, motivated girl who lives in Mettupalayam along with her mother (Rohini), a person who works with women’s self help groups. Anu is someone who is very active on social media and often posts videos of herself doing different things on the networking site. Abhimanyu (Tovino Thomas), an IT professional who works in Chennai, begins to take a liking for the girl after watching her videos on Facebook. He eventually falls in love with her, not for her beauty but for her cheerful attitude and her helping nature. Anu, who initially suspects Abhi’s motives, eventually reciprocates his feelings for her after getting to know that he is a genuine person.

Almost immediately after making her feelings for him known to him, Anu suggests that they marry the very next day. Abhi is a little taken aback at the urgency with which Anu wants to have the wedding. He is reluctant at first. However, he eventually gives in as he is eager to please Anu. Their wedding happens without either her mother or his parents. Thanks to the advancement in technology, Abhi’s parents get to witness their son’s wedding through their phone.

The parents of the boy give their blessings to the couple as does Anu’s mother, who comes in a couple of days after the wedding. Life is peaceful and full of joy for the two for a period of three months.

It is then that Anu conceives and the news is received with joy. Anu’s mother is thrilled that her daughter is about to become a mom and decides to come down to Chennai to take care of her dear daughter. Abhi’s parents too send a housekeeper, the person who took care of Abhi when he was born, to take care of Anu. When the housekeeper meets Anu’s mother and gets to know that Anu is her daughter, she is in for a shock. She immediately calls up Abhi’s parents and passes on the information about who Anu is. They too immediately come down and both Abhi’s parents and Anu’s mom are shocked. Abhi’s parents then ask him to get Anu to abort the child and divorce Anu.

What could be the reason for this drastic decision? Abhiyum Anuvum gives the answer to this question.

The film raises several disturbing questions on what is right and what is wrong, both morally and legally. It is a very sensitive subject and director Vijayalakshmi has handled it with care. Full marks to the director for the manner in which she narrates the entire story.

One reason why she manages to do her job efficiently is because she has good artistes playing the lead.

Pia Bajpai, who plays Anu, does a brilliant job in the film. Be it playing the cheerful, bubbly Anu or the distraught, scared and traumatised Anu, Pia is perfect and does a wonderful job. Tovino Thomas too as Abhi makes an impression but then, his Malayalam accent brings down his performance level marginally.

The film also has good performances coming in from Rohini, Prabhu and Suhasini Maniratnam.

One would have expected the film’s cinematography to be flawless, considering the fact that the director herself is an ace cinematographer. However, sadly that is not the case. While the lighting in the film is great by and large, there are scenes in which the light on the artistes’ face seem inadequate. Cinematographer Akilan might do well to pay more attention to this aspect of his trade.

Music director Dharan, as always, churns up melliflous numbers for the film.

On the whole, Abhiyum Anuvum makes for an interesting watch but be prepared for a thought provoking climax that is bound to leave you pondering long after the movie is over.