Vala movie review: Lukman, Dhyan Sreenivasan film builds a strong world but gets lost within it, unable to find a way out

Bhanu then approaches Purushothaman for help in taking a photo of the bangle to create a similar piece. Although he initially agrees, Purushothaman soon learns that it is an antique worth crores. He turns down Bhanu’s request, realising that a duplicate in the market could diminish its value. This irks Bhanu, who vows to fetch the bangle himself. Meanwhile, Purushothaman attempts to get the bangle removed from Sarala’s hand so he can sell it; but his efforts keep failing. Complicating matters, an elderly woman, Paathumma (Shanthi Krishna), enters the scene, claiming that the bangle actually belongs to her and that Sarala is lying about it being her ancestral property. The multi-way battle for the bangle forms the rest of the movie.

Although Vala starts strong, offering interesting incidents one after the other, with writer Harshad’s screenplay managing to flesh out the central characters well — thanks in particular to his keen focus on their idiosyncrasies — after it reaches its high point in world-building, the movie fails to maintain momentum in its journey forward. It’s as if Harshad spent so much time building the world that he forgot he had to lead the story somewhere and offer it an impactful conclusion. The rich setup goes to waste as, after a certain point, the characters and the narrative at large start moving in circles, unsure of which direction to take or where to settle down.

In the second half, Vala repeatedly evokes a sense of déjà vu, making us feel as though we’ve already seen these moments before. But this feeling isn’t unwarranted. Harshad keeps crafting similar scenes over and over, even inserting some pointless and out-of-place incidents like a death of a supporting character, which causes the script to fail to keep the audience engaged in the narrative, which it had impressively managed to do in the first half.

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The inconsistency in characterisations, with glaring gaps in their arcs — particularly in the cases of Bhanu and Purushothaman — also drains Vala significantly as the story progresses. Though the movie establishes early on that Bhanu is a good samaritan, the factors that prompted him to try and fetch the bangle for Soophikka (Vijayaraghavan) and his wife, Paathumma — the apparent original owners of the ornament — by ignoring his familial life goes unexplained, despite there being ample content in the narrative for this. At the same time, Purushothaman’s descent into avarice also comes across as abrupt. What also works against Vala is that the few jokes in the film fail to land, and the same holds true for the highly emotional moments, where the writing falls short of conveying the gravity of the scenes.

The central women — Sarala and Vishalakshi — meanwhile, receive proper arcs that progress at a measured pace. However, Harshad and Muhashin simply tie them to the bangle, not allowing them to have identities beyond that, thus reinforcing the sexist stereotype that women are inherently materialistic. Although their backgrounds and living conditions differ a bit, both Sarala and Vishalakshi are portrayed as gold-diggers in their own ways, with the film leaning into the Indian patriarchal cliché that “gold is what matters most to women”. While both Bhanu and Purushothaman have identities and emotions that transcend the bangle, the women aren’t offered such ‘luxuries’.

Sarala, in the meantime, is the only one employed among the two central female characters. Yet, she is reduced to the stereotype that Malayalees have associated with women working at Akshaya centres, claiming that they are all marked by indifference, grumpiness and apathy towards customers.

While Lukman Avaran is solid as Bhanu, Dhyan Sreenivasan shows improvement as an actor and has not become, unlike in his previous ventures, a burden to the film here. (Credit: Facebook/@lukmanavaranofficial)

However, what prevents Vala from taking a complete nosedive is Muhashin’s filmmaking, which works wonders in some parts, particularly in the face-offs between Bhanu and Purushothaman. All three of their physical altercation scenes land well, thanks in part to the good stunt choreography by Kalai Kingson and Phoenix Prabhu. Afnas V’s cinematography and Siddique Hyder’s editing also shine the most here.

At the same time, the romantic moments between the central couples also work well, owing to their visual vibrance. At one point, Muhashin even offers a hat-tip to the widely famous trench kiss in Andrei Tarkovsky’s Ivan’s Childhood (1962), with Bhanu and Vishalakshi recreating a similar pose. Although Purushothaman and Sarala’s relationship is rooted in greed and deception, the director effectively captures the early moments in which they radiate the charm of a newlywed couple. Scenes such as Soophikka’s hot-headed Arab boss suddenly getting a blast from the past — remembering his mother feeding him as a child after tasting Soophikka’s signature biryani — and Soophikka and Paathumma sharing a romantic walk in the rain also stand out, thanks to Muhashin’s sharp filmmaking.

However, he never quite manages to pull the film out of its narrative shortcomings. Even the caste and communal politics in the story feel performative and tacked on, as Harshad and Muhashin fail to explore these themes beyond superficial glimpses and mentions. The convenient and underwhelming ending further detracts from the overall experience.

While Lukman is solid as Bhanu, Dhyan shows improvement as an actor and has not become, unlike in his previous ventures, a burden to the film here. Raveena Ravi, meanwhile, knocks it out of the park with her spectacular performance as Sarala, bringing out many shades of her character with finesse. Although Govind Vasantha, as the antique dealer, is a sight to behold, his character ends up being severely underwritten and ultimately wasted. He, nonetheless, deserves credit for the well-executed music here.

Vala movie cast: Lukman Avaran, Dhyan Sreenivasan, Vijayaraghavan, Shanthi Krishna, Raveena Ravi, Arjun Radhakrishnan
Vala movie director: Muhashin
Vala movie rating: 2 stars