Review: Vairam

Director: Nishad. M.A, Producer: N. Shiv Rao, Story: Nishad. M.A, Cast: Pasupathy, Meera Vasudev,Dhanya Mary,Suresh Gopi etc, Music: M.Jayachandran, Cinematography: Sanjeev Shankar, Screenplay,dialogues: Cherian Kalpakavvadi, Stills By: Mahadevan Thampi, Rating: 4/5'

Vairam', director M.A.Nishad's fourth offering after 'Pakal', 'Nagaram' and 'Ayudham' is an issue-based film. The film discusses things that are very much relevant in today's India. Above all, it touches the hearts of those who are the parents of girl child. '

Vairam' has as the title character Vairamani (Dhanya Mary), a young girl who is raped and killed. Vairamani's father Sivarajan (Pasupathy) is a bank manager and mother Devi (Meera Vasudev) a housewife. Sivarajan is basically from Tamil Nadu while Devi hails from Kerala. The couple dotes on their daughter and has dreams of making her a doctor. Sivarajan and family shift to Kerala following a transfer and then Vairamani, who is doing her higher secondary schooling, gets admitted in the school run by the 'Thalikkulam' family, headed by Thalikkulam Avarachan (Thilakan), who has two sons- Thalikkulam George Kutty (Ashokan) and Thalikkulam Josekutty (Jayasurya). In fact the house in which Sivarajan and family live and the building that houses his bank are all owned by the Thalikkulam family, one of the most affluent and powerful families of the place. Anyway things progress fine for Sivarajan and family, until one day Vairamani is found raped and murdered. Sivarajan is shattered. And so is Devi. It's then that Sivarajan gets a hint that it was most likely Thalikkulam Josekutty who raped and killed his daughter. He sets out, determined to avenge his loss and kills Josekutty and lands up in jail, sentenced to serve life.

In fact 'Vairam' begins from this point, then goes back into the past and also etches out what happens afterwards. The other characters who come into the story after this are- Annie Jacob (Samvritha), a young reporter, Ravi Varma (Suresh Gopi), a righteous kind of lawyer and Thomas Eeraly (Mukesh), the Crime Branch officer who re-investigates the whole thing.

The film is sort of a multi-starrer, with many popular stars in the cast, all of them getting to play key roles. Pasupathy impresses the most, as Sivarajan. Meera Vasudev gives able support as Devi. Dhanya Mary is the apt choice for the role of Vairamani. Suresh Gopi, Mukesh and Samvritha Sunil do their roles quite convincingly. Jayasurya deserves to be appreciated for his performance as Josekutty. Thilakan and KPAC Lalitha are superb.

Cheriyan Kalpakavvadi has done a neat job of the script and M.A.Nishad does the direction part satisfactorily well. Sanjeev Shankar's cinematography and Gireesh Menon's art-work are among the highlights on the technical side.

The songs, penned by Gireesh Puthencherry and set to tune by M.Jayachandran are good. The song that begins 'Vennilavu...' stands out.

M.A.Nishad deserves to be appreciated for having come up with a film that discusses such a sensitive and relevant issue and remains within the parameters of commercial cinema too.

--SAMPURN