Vineeth Sreenivasan and company seems to be best in resonating the ethos and attitudes of the present generation. Or at least that is what we surmise when we find thundering success of their films like ‘Thattathin Marayathu’ and ‘Malarvady Arts Club’. Their latest offering ‘Oru Vadakkan Selfie’ is another one in this direction which perfectly sink with the sensibilities of the new generation of Kerala . Though the movie may not exactly be a great film, it manages to keep the viewers in good humour reminding their own 'selfies' and also sending valid messages on privacy and fake identities, across.
The movie focuses on the lives of a carefree, irresponsible engineering student Umesh (Nivin Pauly), hailing from a distant village. Having 42 subjects to clear from his three years, he get back home much to the embarrassment of his father who run a grocery shop for their living. Realising that none respects a failed guy, Umesh now decides to become a film maker to make easy fame and money. His dream is to work under famous South Indian filmmaker Gautham Menon and wants to direct Tamil star actor Ajith. With the aid of his close equally dumb pals Shaji (Aju Varghese) and Thankaprasad (Neeraj Madhav), who continuously boosts him to do inane deeds , they sets off to make a short film which could become viral and fetch them some money. With the arrival of a new neighbour Daisy (Manjima), Umesh gets an inspiration to pen a story for his video work. The movie starts to take a different route as Umesh flees from home to Chennai , but the selfie taken in between is going to change his fate for ever.. G Prajith in his debut directorial venture has come out with a complete entertainer with plenty of comedies. The scripts by Vineeth Sreenivasan which moves on to unexpected lines and twists from a very ordinary background, gives him an adequate platform to work on for a hit formula. The lively dialogues intelligently use the best of Facebook and Whatsapp messages and flawless rendition and timing by the lead trio ,is a treat to watch. Though the movie loses its pace in the final hour where it turns a sort of a road movie, it manages to endup safely taking time to effectively present the messages related to usage of social media without thinking about its causalities. A highly melodramatic scene in the finale appear a little extended than needed and may be in a couple of days the editor is sure to re-edit it to avoid unwanted responses for an otherwise fine offering.
The performance by the actors is the major highlight of the movie, with the amazing 'Maranamass' chemistry between Nivin Pauly and Aju Varghese worked out at best. It sure reminds us of Mohanlal- Sreeni combo of yesteryears. While Nivin excels with his energy and effective styles of dialogue rendition, Aju Varghese is in his best form and establishes himself to be the best sidekick in recent times. Neeraj Madhav is natural while Vineeth Sreenivasan manages to add believability to his unrealistic role. Manjima Mohan is beautiful and ok as a debut face , but herm dubbing could have been better in the final sequence. Bhagath, Sreelekshmy, Vijayaraghavan and others in the frames make their appearances noticed.
The technical sides of the movie is top notch with Jomon T John carving some good visuals amidst the galloping tracks in Thanjavoor and Pazhani. Rajan Abhraham also slices best telling a lot in its 143 minutes screntime. Shaan Raham is at his best when he is with the Vineeth team. His music for the songs and the BGM’ are impressive and adds to the mood of the movie .
All in all, this Vadakkan Selfie’ is your vacation watch for sure, adorned with its immaculate energy and fine transitions in narratives. Also with a wise message tagged upon the interesting sequences, the movie is sure to end up as another hit from the team.
Rating -6.9/10
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