Cast: Pranav Mohanlal, Darshana Rajendran, Kalyani Priyadarshan, Aju Varghese
Music: Hesham Abdul Wahab
Direction: Vineeth Sreenivasan
Malayalam films are known for having a long thank you credits. In Hridayam, the thank you credits is backed by the mesmerizing ‘Hridayam Theme’, which slowly sucks you into their world. Specifically when the solo violin bit starts. Not going to lie, I was already half sold to the film. The film is a coming of age drama of the protagonist, Arun Neelakandan (Pranav Mohanlal) whom we follow right from the moment he joins an engineering college in Chennai.
During the initial stretches of the film, I was wondering if the film would offer something new to this extensively explored plotline. We have Premam in Malayalam, Autograph & Vaaranam Aayiram in Tamil, Kirik Party in Kannada and Arjun Reddy in Telugu on this same coming of age plotline. But Vineeth Sreenivasan delivers a refreshing take with Hridayam.
One of the major reason is the character arc of Arun. He starts off as a confident young guy who confidently proposes to Darshana (Darshana Rajendran), stands up against the bullying seniors and also lies about his relationship to a stranger girl. Though confident, he is immature. He almosts ends up kissing that stranger girl which leads to breaking up with Darshana. He has downfall, where he starts drinking, bullying the juniors, flunks every exam. A crucial incident pushes him to do better. The journey of him becoming a mature person is superbly written with some interesting characters like Selva and his study group. I am glad that the film explores Darshana’s character arc too, though not as extensively as Arun’s. The writing seamlessly builds their character arc that deals with moving on in life.
The first half, which is largely about the college life is also interestingly written. The entire study group bit was so emotional and refreshing. Vineeth subtly portrays Chennai beautifully. He uses a lot of things that are clichés about Chennai, like the Anbe Sivam, ‘Thala Pola Varuma’ wall paintings, a small character named Raaja from Pannaiyapuram who is good in music, the beaches, and sambar rice are so well treated and nuanced used.
Hesham Abdul Wahab’s background score and songs are the soul for Vineeth’s story. The audio was released as Side A & Side B with 15 songs and each of them is a gem. The music brings out the emotions in a gigantic manner. The performances by Pranav, Darshana, Kalyani Priyadarshan and other actors brings out the world alive. Each and every character is memorable. Vineeth Sreenivasan has delivered a proper feel-good film. The set-up of Selva character and payoff to it is one of the emotionally high moments in this emotional journey.
Verdict: The film is full of heart, just like its title with some soul stirring music
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