Ayalum Njanum Thammil: What I liked, didn't like, and thought was sad.

WHAT I LIKED:

#1: The Narrative style (The flashbacks, justifications, and all that stuff)

I didn't just like the narrative style. I LOVED it. I loved how the story spent most of its time in the flashback to explain ONE event in the present, which made the entire movie is based around one simple question: What made Dr. Ravi Tharakan operate without consent?

Ayalum Njanum Thammil was written by the Bobby-Sanjay duo. Some of their other scripts, like Mumbai Police and Uyare had similar things going on with their narratives. Mumbai Police was about a police officer trying to re-investigate a case after he lost his memory in an accident. Most of the story was in the flashback, and this nonlinear storyline worked really well, especially for justifications of their present actions. Even in Uyare, which had flashbacks in the main flashback, was beautifully told. All three of these movies, besides the flashback narrative, had one thing in common: The driving question. Mumbai Police's driving question was "Who killed ACP Aaryan?" That might seem like a question that every murder mystery has, but the question in Mumbai Police is only made more unique and more justified because of the premise. In Uyare, the question is "Who exactly is Pallavi Raveendran?" This question gets answered throughout the first half of the flashback, but in the second half, the question becomes, "Is she still who she was before?" Every single scene in both the movies seems to work toward finding, proving, and justifying an answer for these questions.

Coming back to Ayalum Njanum Thammil, the driving question was "What made Dr. Ravi Tharakan operate without consent?" (I know I said it earlier, but this movie's just so good that it's worth repeating again.) Over the course of the flashback, you notice how Ravi Tharakan (played by Prithviraj) changes from a doctor who doesn't know what a stethoscope is, to an actually worthy and disciplined doctor. One of the events that seems to push forth that change in him is when Dr. Samuels operates secretly on a patient without consent from the parents. You would think that this is why Dr. Tharakan does the operation without consent in the present. It makes you realize that he's witnessed a similar situation in his past. Even the protests in the present were something that happened to him before, when he refused to treat the daughter of the police officer that basically stopped his marriage from happening. But in the present, his decision wasn't based on any of this, which I thought made that twist even more profound.

#2: Redemption Hospital/Dr. Samuels

Redemption Hospital was where most of the flashback took place, and it was literally what the name suggested: A place of redemption. A place for second chances. It was more of a character than a setting in the movie, and depending on how you view it, you can either say that Redemption Hospital gave Dr. Tharakan two second chances or a second and a third chance. In both views, the first second chance is for the undisciplined Ravi Tharakan. It's his second chance to actually become a good doctor, and within this chance, he gets many, many "mini second chances," like when Dr. Samuels (played by Prathap Pothen) stood up for him when he refused to treat the girl. In his second second chance (or his third chance), he's given the opportunity to live in this new world, away from the protests. He's basically given the chance to essentially become the new Dr. Samuels for Redemption Hospital, and help give others second chances. Dr. Tharakan even says,

"My story is just beginning, once again, from Redemption Hospital."

And this dialogue comes right before...

#3: The last dialogue in the film:

"This is the place where Doctor Ravi Tharakan was born."

I love this dialogue. It was probably one of the best endings I've ever seen in movies. Usually, movies just force a happy ending, or they freeze the frame when everyone's smiling at the camera, as if the whole movie was just some kind of function, and the ending is the photo session. If it's a thriller, then they'll normally end with either a party for the hero or just a slo-mo thing of the dead guy (because there's always some dead guy in every thriller.) They somehow usually end in a way that sort of swerves away from the genre of the movie itself.

Some movies end in a more interesting (and better) manner, though, like with a cliffhanger or random twist, and those are really interesting, but they still sometimes veer away from the movie's original genre. I prefer more natural endings, whether it's a cliffhanger or a dance party or whatever. The ending should fit with the film, its story, and genre, rather than trying to be happy just so that the audience can leave the theatre happily. This happens a lot in Telugu movies. Take Ye Maaya Chesave and Vinnaithaandi Varuvaaya. Both are basically the same movie, but the Telugu version had a happier ending because that's what the audience wanted. Ayalum Njanum Thammil ends peacefully and naturally, just the way it should. The movie was about how Dr. Ravi Tharakan changed throughout his life, and the ending wrapped it all up together with his metamorphosis still in mind. It ended right back where it started, completing the story. In another sense, you could say that it brought the story to another beginning, where Dr. Ravi Tharakan will start his next journey. (In English class, this is called the hero's journey. The hero should be forced out of his comfort world into the unknown, and then return back, ready to start the next journey. In this movie, his comfort zone became Redemption Hospital.)

The very last scene, because you always save the best for last.

#4: The use of silhouettes

It's not something I can even explain, so you should watch the movie.

WHAT I DIDN'T LIKE:

#1: Diya, played by Rima Kallingal

Diya was just a weird character. Differently stereotypical, if that even makes sense. I guess she was fine, but her character became a typical secretary you would see in comedy movies, sometimes accepting bribes, letting bad equipment pass through, etc. One day, Dr. Ravi Tharakan shows up in her office, and takes her on a life changing trip to a patient's house, to show how people have been affected by bad equipment and bad decisions. All of a sudden, she's in tears, and basically understood the weight of her decisions all at once. This might seem like how Ravi Tharakan changed in his past because of Dr. Samuels, but because Diya's transformation was relatively smaller and more abrupt, it didn't seem as deep as it actually was, but this was honestly something that bothered me for a moment before I was drawn back into the story.

WHAT I THOUGHT WAS SAD, but was necessary to be exactly how it was, unfortunately:

#1: The love story between Ravi and Sainu

The love story between Ravi and Sainu was literally the saddest thing ever. It was nice and cute in college, and then for the first part of the Redemption Hospital part, when they sent letters to each other. When her marriage was getting fixed, they decided to elope, and literally a matter of minutes and revenge ruined the whole plan, and they never saw each other again. This draws back to when Ravi was going to Redemption Hospital for the very first time, when he found a new enemy in the form of a police officer, and this police officer's revenge was fulfilled when he made Ravi go to the end of the line of traffic on his way to get married. He was literally two minutes late because of this- Sainu's family had taken her away by the time he got to the registrar. Ravi then got revenge on the police officer by not treating the officer's daughter, and this had its own repercussions which linked to the present story. (Again, I love how literally every single scene was related to every other scene, no matter how random the two could've been.)

I just wish Sainu had more screen time. She was only there for maybe 15 minutes and two songs (Januvariyil and Azhalinte Azhangalil. I personally like the second one better.)

#2: The father (at the beginning of the movie) that didn't want his daughter to be operated on, when the mother did.

This was really sad. How can someone just NOT get their daughter operated when her life is in critical danger? The mother barely even got a say in the decision, and when she did secretly ask for the operation, she accidentally ended up causing protests against Dr. Ravi Tharakan. I don't think there's much more to even say about this.

I'll end this post with a fan-made minimal poster. Guess which fan made this!