Ithiri Neram Review | A Move-on Story With Beautiful Romance and Middling Bromance

When the promos of the latest Roshan Mathew, Zarin Shihab starrer Ithiri Neram dropped, the immediate comparisons were with C Prem Kumar’s 96. The movie’s trailer gave us that vibe of a conversational love Story between two individuals who were at one point in love. Directed by Prasanth Vijay and written by Vishak Shakti, Ithiri Neram features some genuinely lovely, sensible romantic moments. However, a larger part of the second half of this movie is crisis management. Even though it is making the film engaging differently, the contrast between these two tracks somewhat reduces the charm the movie created through its romantic bits.

Anish, a journalist who runs a show named Ithiri Neram that gets streamed on YouTube, is our hero. The night before a major personal event in his life, he was going to join two of his close friends for a small party. At that point, he gets a call from his ex-girlfriend Anjana, who was in the same city. They both decided to meet. What we see in the movie are the events that unfolded after their meeting and how it took a different turn when certain unexpected things happened.

I am a big fan of Richard Linklater’s Before Trilogy, especially the first two movies. The kind of subtle, raw, and conversational romance we see in those movies was pretty unique, and one of the reasons I found 96 extremely impressive was that it tried to narrate romance in a similar conversational style. The beauty of Ithiri Neram is in the moments where Anish and Anjana are together. Oftentimes, when we see movies that try to explore the complicated or grey spaces of a relationship, they tend to sound pretentious. There will be too many philosophies inside dialogues, and that will sort of disconnect you from those characters. The writing of Vishak Shakti for this movie knows they need to keep it real to keep the audience hooked. The conversation between Anish and Anjana is swinging from the happiness of seeing someone to remembering what went wrong.

Prasanth Vijay and Vishak Shakti know how important it is to keep the audience interested in the conversations between the duo. From intense emotional exchanges to loosened-up jibes at each other, this phase of the movie in Ithiri Neram is wonderful to watch. Without even showing any flashback bits, the film establishes how close they were in the past. Prasanth Vijay, at one point, breaks the 180-degree rule to show the switch from the characters only saying nice things to addressing what went wrong. Like I said, in movies like this, the problem most often lies in the writing going into an over-intellectualized space. But here, the transactions sound very organic. There is an even balance of English and Malayalam in the dialogues that sort of keeps the movie in that grounded space.

Where the movie derails a bit is when Anish’s friends come into the picture. The intention of that whole track might be to add people who can’t accept or understand the kind of relationship Anish and Anjana share. But somewhere, one could sense the writer’s block in that portion. Even though there are some funny moments in that detour from the core element, you don’t really see this whole crisis management track contributing much to the plot. One of the conversations between the lead pair towards the end gives you an idea of why they wanted to show this track. But I felt that whole episode needed a bit more fine-tuning. The minimal use of background score and the two songs, other than Neeyorikkal, by Basil CJ, were beautiful.

The performances are pretty much what drives this movie. Even though it is a conversational film, there are these silences in between lines. I feel it was due to the way both Roshan Mathew and Zarin Shihab carried those characters, even the silences felt curious. From being hesitant in the initial parts, Roshan performs the transition of the character to a comfortable space very smoothly. The repartee between the two is also making those moments look enjoyable on screen. A lot of the time, it was the minimal gestures like the way Roshan waves at a random guy, or stops the conversation abruptly, knowing the bartender is hearing that, were making his performance look so real on screen. Zarin Shihab portrays the evolved, mature energy of Anjana very effectively on screen. There is an ease with which she delivers her lines, even when what is spoken is harsh.

I had to mention how editing sort of helps to extract the best performance. In the movie’s teaser, there is a bit where Anjana says, “Ithiri Neram Paripadi Chilappozhokke Kelkkarundu.” The way Zarin says Chilappozhokke in that scene actually sounds a bit odd. But when it comes to the movie, Francies Louis cuts precisely at that point to the reaction shot of Roshan Mathew, and it really fixed that issue. Nandu as Rajan was really good. From being the typical comical character in the beginning to being that guy who cares, there was no overdoing it in his performance. Some of the comical performances Anand Manmadhan had done in the recent past had that deliberate higher pitch. But in this one, he was able to perform Chanchal with that right balance. The presenter of the movie Jeo Baby appears in the film as an auto driver. Since we get to experience unexaggerated Trivandrum accent through the performances of Nandu, Anand Manmadhan, and even Roshan Mathew in the second half, Jeo Baby’s obviously pitched-up accent really stood out.

If you love conversational romantic movies with meaningful silences and no spoon-feeding, there is a good chunk of material in Ithiri Neram that will keep you invested in the film. If they could have managed the second half crisis in a way that looked essential for the plot, I think the movie would have succeeded in creating that sweet pain that we have seen in films like 96. Just like how some people only watch the first half of some classic comedy movies for comedic relief, there is a possibility that a lot of people might end up rewatching the first half of Ithiri Neram to see the charm of organic romance.