REVIEW:: RITU

Shyamaprasad may be swapping tequila shots for a fruit cocktail in his new film Ritu, but no, I am not complaining.


Shyamaprasad loves his literature. At one point in Ore kadal, Bela (Remya Krishnan) makes a passing remark to Nathan (mammooty) about how, in Jayadevan’s Geetagovindam there is a mention of the wounds of love left by Radha on Sri Krishna’s body. Invoking this piece of ancient literature was hardly coincidental; as the film was a crazily crafted exploration of the radhakrishna legend. The film to a great extent followed that missing chapter – what happened to radha after Krishna left her- and blossomed it into a brilliant film on love, passion and literally, all the madness that comes with it.

In Ritu, he uses the exact same pointing device to give a synopsis of what he wants to narrate, though here, the markers are much more accessible. First, there is a very much visible reference to Iago of Othello, with an added monologue on betrayal, immediately after a protagonist is subject to an act of treachery. Throughout the film, there is a shadow of Iago’s green eyed monster in the interplay between the three protagonists. The innocent friendship of yesterday has given way to an invisible separation of jealousy, and it is the primary emotion that drives the people in this movie to their various actions. And Shyamaprasad captures beautifully the subsequent tension that this shadow creates in the claustrophobic spaces of IT company cubicles. this is made all the more difficult as he is not working with seasoned actors, who may more easily be able to convey understated emotions via a mere look or a subtle change in body language. Yet with careful composition of scenes and some deft handling of the debutantes, he is able to construct those emotions with minimal dialogues. In fact, in a way, the visuals-which by far overpower the conversations, are what you take away from the film. And this jealousy is by no means one dimensional, it is etched out in a highly subjective manner – while for the much more yuppie Sunny it is purely professional and all about his career, for Sharat , who is more of an old world, romantic youth, jealousy is all Shakespeare-an.

But while Othello forms the body, or better the atmosphere of the movie, the soul is referenced in the other literary work that finds a mention - Fernando Pessoa’s the book of disquiet, where he interprets the theory “‘I’ contain multitudes”. There are multiple ‘me’s within me. That is the journey that Sharat makes in the film, discovering a new facet of himself that he never realized was there inside. He arrives into his old group of friends awkwardly stuck up in a set of yesterdays, only to find out that the people in those yesterdays have moved on. Yet by the end of the film, it is Sharat who is well and truly able to make a clean break from his past. The wavelength of his relationships is suffocatingly idealistic. He is your quintessential straightforward nice guy, always empathetic, overtly sensitive. Yet when he realizes his commitment is hardly reciprocated, his course of action is not of masculine confrontation or despairing resignation, but it is one of a scheming mastermind. How he exposes sunny is quite evident, but what may escape the eye, and more significant to establish Sharat as a character is how he schemes and toys with the emotions of Varsha, again tapping into that atmosphere of jealousy integrated into the film, to get her to bed, to achieve what could only be called a revenge, and which she is made to mistake as an act of forgiveness. This act of betrayal is really the pivotal point of the film, as this is where the various elements of the movie comes together in one piece,and this is where Sharat truly gets over his past. One cannot help wondering if those portions where staged with the emphasis that was deserved.

All this theorizing may give the impression of a complex emotional potboiler, but Ritu is very much a light move. But how this lightness is defined is relative- it is a Shyamaprasad light movie and not a Priyadarsan one. The movie is pitched as a fresh take on youth, and fresh it is in a lot of ways. Most movies labeled as youth movies can be defined by just the word “LOUD”- both in colour, sound and narrative. Ritu carefully stays clear of this tedious approach. It unfolds at a mature pace, and the film has a very watered down look to it- the dominant colour here is an ashen grey (look out for the colouring of Sharat’s shirts) as if to highlight the point that both morally as well as emotionally our lives are mostly a middle of the road abstract grey, rather than a concrete black or white. Ritu stays away from any sort of nauseating melodrama, and the treatment is very much contemporary.The casting is appropriate, and the actors turn in a bit strained, yet very convincing performances. Yet, some of the caricaturing is essentially old school- like how the characters of the three friends is a laid out as a direct consequence of what their families are and where. Some of these die hard old habits are the weakest parts of the film, when the movie tries to incorporate social commentaries into the narrative – a side story about a man who lost his land when technopark was built, another one about the absence of a fulfilling family life among the corporate big shots. One can’t help wishing the valuable time and space devoted there was employed to portrait the central characters in more depth; especially sunny. Sunny is the most negative of the trio, yet his is an interesting mix, at times there are some genuine hints of sincerity, and there is also a strange mention regarding sexuality – that raises a million questions that are never answered. Shyamaprasad may have been taking his notion of making a light film a little too seriously or perhaps he was having a hang over from the intense study that was ore kadal, whatever it was, there is a reluctance to really push hard and delve into the complexities of his characters. This seeming lack of depth is not helped by an average background score. For Shyamaprasad’s craft derives a lot of inspiration from music, both in Akale and Ore kadal the music was used brilliantly used to provide a unique texture to the medium. Rahul raj’s background score is not bad, but his understanding of the situations of the movie leaves a lot to be desired and as a result, the music fails to add anything significant to our appreciation of the film (and at times, it irritatingly interferes).

It is this laid back approach that, perhaps, made me exit from the movie hall with a feeling of wanting more. No, it’s not fair to make comparisons always, and Ritu works fine on its own. No, I am not at all complaining about Shyamaprasad taking some time to just chill out. Yes, Ritu certainly has vignettes that leave you salivating. But I will certainly wait eagerly for a work for which he will have to sweat some blood.