Vishesham movie review: Despite its theme, unadventurous approach makes it an average fare

Soon after their marriage, a couple faces societal pressures to live according to conventional expectations, taking an emotional toll on their lives

Film: Vishesham

Starring: Anand Madhusoodhanan, Chinnu Chandhni, Althaf Salim

Direction: Sooraj Tom

Plot: Soon after their marriage, a couple faces societal pressures to live according to conventional expectations, taking an emotional toll on their lives.

Duration: 136 minutes

Vishesham, the Malayalam word, has multiple connotations, both pleasant and unpleasant, depending on the context in which it is used. The Vishesham in Sooraj Tom’s film’s title implies the latter, indicating the unpleasant questions that newly married couples face from relatives and random strangers.

At one point, the makers appear to make their stand clear on such questions by having Sajitha (Chinnu Chandni), one of the protagonists, burst out uncontrollably at a woman from the neighbourhood who pesters her with that question related to child bearing. But unlike Jude Anthany Joseph’s Sara’s, which was about similar societal pressures faced by a couple, Tom’s film does not go the whole hog. Rather, it is concerned with the emotional upheavals that a couple which gives in to such pressures has to undergo.