Thalavara movie review: Arjun Ashokan’s film makes you wonder if you’re the problem (but you’re not)

For instance, there’s a scene in this Akhil Anilkumar directorial where Jyothish (Arjun Ashokan) takes his girlfriend Sandhya (Revathy Sharma) to the top of a local water tower. As they arrive, we see two middle-aged men sitting at the bottom, consuming liquor and having a heated argument. Although Jyothish and Sandhya’s conversation is the focal point here, and the camera follows them as they climb the spiral staircase to the top, we can hear the quarrel of the two men in the background. At the top, Jyothish sorrowfully shares with Sandhya how his friends often tease him for his vitiligo, nicknaming him Panda (pand in Malayalam means patch). To instill confidence in him, she points out that they can no longer hear the argument of those drunkards and says, “Once you reach the top, you won’t hear what people say.” Thalavara (Fate) is, unfortunately, filled with such on-the-nose dialogues and scenes, devoid of any subtlety, appearing as if crafted simply to make a point or reach a preplanned plot point.

In fact, the film opens with an in-your-face sequence showing how people around Jyothish casually remind him of his condition very frequently and belittle him. While this serves as a reminder of his everyday struggles, the impact of placing a sequence like this at the start — without bothering to introduce him as a person or explore other aspects of his life — is such that it reduces his identity to “the man with vitiligo”, undermining the movie’s broader “effort” to “show” that he is more than just his autoimmune disorder. In the very next scene, we see that his sister, Jyothi (a terrific Athira Maryam), has secretly married Jyothish’s friend Ganesh (Sarath Sabha), and here too, his condition is casually thrown around by the quarrelling characters, making one wonder if the movie’s heart is in the right place. Akhil’s “brilliance”, nonetheless, lies in not giving us the space or option to politically read the movie, which is achieved by presenting us with an extremely undercooked narrative visualised in an equally deplorable manner.

Even as the movie progresses following this unimpressive first act, most of the scenes give the impression that writers Akhil Anilkumar and Appu Aslam had only a vague idea of what each scene should contain but no clue how to flesh them out properly. Even the emotional moments and those seemingly crafted to induce humour fall flat, often boring viewers. While Thalavara revolves around Jyothish and his friends for a while until Sandhya makes her entry, the young men’s conversations sound overly artificial. The main issue here is that the dialogues feel as if the writers overheard similar lines in real life, thought they were funny and relatable, and decided to pack them into the script without considering whether these could seamlessly blend into the narrative. Much like the never-ending thank-you cards displayed at the beginning of this movie, these scenes also pass by without leaving any impact, adding only to the already mounting exhaustion of the viewers.

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Another factor that detracts from the experience is the extremely casual and clichéd manner in which Jyothish and Sandhya’s love story is crafted and shown. Despite Arjun and Revathy exuding good on-screen chemistry, the lack of substance in the script prevents us from feeling anything for them. The palpable level of predictability in the story and character arcs — with almost everything, including the eventual death of one of the key characters, being entirely foreseeable — further makes one wonder if the makers put in any solid effort into writing, particularly since many have crafted significantly better films with even more predictable stories. While the weak dialogues pull the narrative further down, Akhil’s inability to mask the flaws in the picturisation of the wafer-thin script only worsens the situation, leaving Thalavara insipid, with Electronic Kili’s music being the only saving grace.

Considering that he has delivered better performances in the past, Arjun Ashokan’s portrayal of Jyothish here is, at best, serviceable. The lack of depth in the character, combined with the makers’ inability to explore it both horizontally and vertically — beyond the few sad expressions the actor puts on at certain moments — hinders him from delivering more. At the same time, the occasional inconsistency in Arjun’s accent is also very evident. Despite the movie being set in Palakkad with almost all characters following the local dialect, there are moments when Arjun’s dialogue delivery can remind one of his character from Pranaya Vilasam (2023), as a hint of Kannur slang appears here from time to time.

Revathy Sharma as the Coimbatore-born Sandhya — the only person who sees Jyothish beyond his condition and showers him with the love and care he never received before, as highlighted in a beautiful shot of her kissing the macule above one of his eyes — is spectacular. She, too, could have benefited from better writing. Almost all other actors, including Ashokan and Devadarshini Chetan as Jyothish’s parents, are left underutilised in their poorly developed characters.

Thalavara movie cast: Arjun Ashokan, Revathy Sharma, Ashokan, Devadarshini Chetan, Sarath Sabha, Athira Mariyam, Abhiram Radhakrishnan
Thalavara movie director: Akhil Anilkumar
Thalavara movie rating: 1.5 stars