Malayalam Cinema Strikes Again! - Athiradi Review

Ajouté : 2026-05-18

[00:00:00]Malayalam cinema just thinks different.

[00:00:02]This time they took a college event and turned it into a commercially viable cinematic experience. That too made by a debutant. How did they do it? Let's talk about Athiran, written and act by Arun Anirudhan and he co-wrote it with Paulson Zacharia. Now leading up to the release, I was watching all the interviews which are very entertaining of Basil Joseph and Tovino Thomas for the film and I can tell you that they matched that energy in the film also. In one of the interviews they mentioned they approached the film with a Tamil commercial flavor and that's very apparent after watching the film. It has got the style and vibe of Tamil films like Dude and Dragon. Now this film takes a event from a college life, the annual fest, and builds a whole saga around it. They almost create a myth and lore around it and they convince you as audience the importance of this event, why it matters for the students, why the characters are so passionate about it.

[00:00:48]The college fest Arohha is literally a character in the film itself. The way we explore the different aspects of it, what it means for the students, what it takes to organize one, the different things that unfold during this process, and how the stakes are so high. Like it literally blows my mind that they pulled this off. It's almost like a grand cinematic retelling of what it takes to organize an event. I have done many of them in my residential society and actually watching this film on the big screen, it feels like you are seen. It's a story about us who have done such things. We see that organizing an event becomes an adventure. The organizers involved are heroes. In a way the film is celebrating those people and that makes you feel special because these are the people who never get their due.

[00:01:27]There are so many big events that take place. So many of them functions so smoothly. People come, enjoy and they leave. They don't know who are the people who are behind it to make it work, to give you that experience. So in a way this film is giving those people voice, giving them their undue appreciation. And at the scale this film pulls it is just outstanding. The way it's shot, the way it's edited, the whole sequences, the whole style to it.

[00:01:49]You can literally see that they've designed and planned it. The set pieces in this film are long and stretched out and they maintain a logical continuity in it. At no point characters are teleporting to different places. There's nothing random happening. The film is almost executed like a college event.

[00:02:03]And in the film I noticed some very interesting attention to detail. We have this scene with two characters where they're having heart-to-heart and it's taking place in the middle of the fest with all that chaos. And most of the times, you know, the world around them will be silent because it's a scene between two of them. The focus will be on the moment. But this film actually breaks the moment with a character outside the screen asking for a pen. And while the characters are talking, one of them takes a pen and pass it on while continuing the talk. They literally break the momentum of that scene. But because of it, you believe that these people are in a fest, that they are the organizers. It feels lived in because this is how it happens in real life. If you're talking to someone, you will get interrupted because that's the world you are in around. Similarly, there's another scene. We have two groups of people, the police and the students, and they're talking about something very important. And a character standing behind them, while all this is happening, gets a quick call. He just takes it and say, "I'll call you later."

[00:02:51]and cuts it off. Again, a small detail that no one really really care, but it adds to the effect that these are the organizers. They'll keep getting calls about various things. Again, making that moment lived in that reality. Everything that the film sets up, they later pay it off. Be it the bus without the engine or the mechanical robot or the final year project, everything comes back in a circuit. And that tells you that there's nothing extra in the story. It is all planned out. The interval stretch, oh my god, it was so fantastic. It's almost 20-25 minutes long. There are multiple events that happen building up to it and then the final strike. And it just lays out the foundation for the next half.

[00:03:24]And similarly with the climax. It's almost, I think, 30-minute long stretch.

[00:03:27]One incident after the other keeps happening building up to that final moment. I think the biggest achievement of the film is how personally it makes you invested. You emotionally connect to the characters in their journey. There are literally multiple plot lines which are interweaved together. We have our hero whose mission is to conduct the fest. There's a personal angle to it why he wants to do it. Then we have the hero's brother who has a separate character arc. Then the hero also has a romance angle which is done really well.

[00:03:49]And then we have our antagonist who's going up against the hero and he has his own personal arc. And the film very seamlessly blends it all together really well. Basil Joseph with every film as an actor, he's just proving how talented he is. Like if you didn't know his real age, you would believe that he's a college kid. That's how convincing he was. Not just in the looks, but even in the feel. And his character goes on this whole arc of a hero's journey. He learns and changes by the end. He has this growth. It is like, you know, coming of age. And you believe in his passion, you know, to conduct this fest. How emotionally invested he is. And with that he also brings the silliness, the humor. He's just so good at, you know, being stupid on screen. Everyone cannot do that. Tovino Thomas, man, every time with every film, I just like, what can he not do? This was a very tricky role for him. It could have been a very one-tone character, but with his performance, he brings a lot to it. This character is like a wild bull and he plays it off really well. And his character also gets an arc which I was not expecting at all. Riyas Shereef, I've said this before also for Sadanandam She is a powerhouse. What a screen presence she has, my god. You cannot look away while she's on the screen. Vineeth Sreenivasan and Shaan Rahman brought so much humor into the film just playing themselves and there were so many jokes that he took on himself. You know, so fun to watch. And the whole supporting cast, the side characters, everyone did a good job.

[00:05:03]This is a film to be watched in a packed theater. It'll be a great community watching. Sadly, that wasn't the case with me. First time I missed my show because my car tire gave up and the next show I could attend only had, I think, four of us in total. Me one side and a group of three on the other side. And I have to say there were two girls in that group and the way they were reacting, shouting, screaming, cheering, I got so many inside jokes in the film, but there were few where they were reacting so much I understood, okay, I'm missing here something. But there are so many meta references. Few of them which I got was one where one of the professors says, "Sam, come to my office." Which is the Adi Purush reference, I know. Then we hear Sreenivasan saying, "I'll do anything for family." And they even cracked a joke on Dhyan Sreenivasan for giving too many interviews. Now, the film did feel long to me. I could feel the runtime. I feel the editing could have been a little more crisp. At many places in the film there are these elongated sequences and the energy and vibe the film is going with as an audience it's very hard to keep up with that energy. That kind of tires you out.

[00:05:57]This is something you may not feel if you're watching that packed theater.

[00:06:00]That vibe really matters the way you watch it. Watching the film you know I was wondering there could be a separate film which is just about the fist where we don't need any villains. Maybe that would not be that commercial but I would like to see you know how a fist really happens. Getting into the finer details.

[00:06:14]How the planning happens, how do you get sponsors, how do you program it, how do you take care of the finances. It'd be really fun to explore that but I guess that would not be that entertaining unless someone makes it. Now that I talked about the film has multiple plot lines it has to maintain a balancing act. The editing becomes really important because there's so many things happening you have to create a priority list. Which characters are more important and which are less important.

[00:06:36]And I think overall the film does a satisfactory job but there are some angles and characters which are underutilized or the narrative didn't have time to explore them much. Like the equation between Basil Joseph and his dad we never get a final outcome of it.

[00:06:47]Then Tovino's character and his wife a lot of it is left on your imagination.

[00:06:51]And when there's so much happening you know there will be some characters who are just servicing the plot. Everyone cannot have an arc. And at the end of the day you cannot really complain because everything just works. That's what matters. I'm just impressed you know the way the director and his team has pulled off this film. Technically it is so solid the control over the narrative when there's so much happening. Like if you don't execute it well it can easily go wrong and end up as a mess which was maybe the case with Patriot. watch my video if you haven't what went wrong with it. Was it the film or the audiences? Do let me know your thoughts on Athiran in the comments below and I will see you next time. Lot more reviews coming soon.