Debutant director Ra Karthik sets up Nitham Oru Vaanam on a premise that sounds like a typical Kollywood story - a hero wallows in bitterness because the bride his parents found for him breaks off the marriage, choosing her boyfriend instead. And then, Karthik surprises us with a quirky, moving tale about second chances and what love can really mean. The film opens to Arjun (Ashok Selvan), sitting at a bus stop in Bhubaneswar, ruefully telling a fellow traveller, Shubha (Ritu Varma) about his broken off engagement. Subha is a seasoned solo backpacker, clearly happiest when she’s on the road. Arjun, on the other hand, can barely keep track of his own luggage and hates sleeping anywhere else but in his own bed.
How a man who absolutely loathes travelling, is germaphobic, ends up on an adventure, allows the story to unfold into smaller tales. Of course, as is par for the course in Tamil cinema, there is little understanding of mental health issues like Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD) and Depression or doctor-patient relationships. Arjun’s family doctor, in an attempt to help him deal with his engagement being called off, gives him two journals to read. Arjun isn’t the typical hero. He is quiet, avoids confrontations and prefers the company of his books. So the doctor initially tells him that each journal contains a short story that she had written herself. The journals are on the love story of two couples who beat several odds to be together. And to the chagrin of Arjun’s ‘obsessive personality’, it abruptly ends with a cliffhanger. The last few pages have been torn out.
If he wants to know what happened to the couples, he must travel to Kolkata and to somewhere in Himachal Pradesh to find out. And so he sets off begrudgingly. Interestingly, Arjun pictures himself as the protagonist whenever he reads a book, giving a wonderfully in form Ashok Selvan the chance to play three completely different characters.
As Arjun opens the first journal, we are whisked away to a small town movie theatre where Veera (Ashok Selvan again), makes a very Kollywood-style ‘mass’ entry, beats up men who harass his sister and is the typical rowdy-student-with-a-golden heart. When he falls in love with Meenakshi (Shivathmika Rajashekar), director Karthik surprises us with how their romance plays out. Meenakshi is mistaken for a timid college girl but turns out to be a basketball pro, much better than Veera. But her father’s “maanam” (honour) will not let her play anymore. It’s a rarity in Tamil cinema where a hero fights for his love interest to pursue her passion and cheers from the side-lines. Even rarer that a woman being better than him at a sport isn’t portrayed as emasculating. Karthik simply gives us the story of this young couple: a woman discovering her agency, a lover consistently offering his solidarity.
Ashok Selvan transforms seamlessly from Arjun to Veera with his charmingly roguish swagger, yet grounded ideas about love and partnership. Shivatmika, in her Tamil debut, is utterly convincing as a soulful young woman slowly learning defiance and choosing her own joy over everything else.
It’s the second story in the journal, the love and trials of Prabha and Madhi, that truly captivates. Prabha too is played by Ashok Selvan. From his performance in Soodhu Kavvum (2013), we know that the actor is equally at ease in quirky roles as he is in playing romantic leads. Aparna Balamurali as the casting choice for Madhi is pitch perfect. She has an infallible ability for delivering sassy one-liners, portraying a nonchalant refusal to comply with other people’s rules, and show us heartbreak and comic-timing simultaneously. Aparna leaves you wondering if there is any role that she cannot pull off. The two actors manage the humour flawlessly, playing off each other’s comic-timing. There were several moments when I caught myself clapping for Madhi. Annoyed with a bride-viewing ceremony her father (Azhagam Perumal) arranges, she stalks off in full regalia — silk saree, heavy jewellery and half the flower-market in her hair — to wait things out at the town bus stand. Madhi’s cool disregard for these ceremonies that are treated in Tamil society with almost reverent fanaticism is a delight to watch.
Even amid the hilarious and slightly questionable events that lead to their coming together, a tragedy crashes into their lives. It is at the moment of revealing the upheavals in Madhi and Prabha’s and Veera and Meenakshi’s stories that the journals are cut off, sending Arjun on his journey to find out what happened to them. When the plot returns to Arjun and Shubha, we are again given a female character who is recognisable, real and who women can see themselves in. Shubha has her own reasons for being on the road alongside Arjun and her own heartbreak to overcome. As she quietly talks about the weight of her grief to Arjun, her sadness and anger steals up on us. There is no place for judgment here. An independent woman, backpacking across the Himalayan slopes bares her soul and without any fanfare receives what we all seek - compassion. Ritu Varma as Shubha is refreshingly believable except in a few brief moments when her acting comes off as a little too cutesy.
The layered writing of the women characters and the performances of each of them truly makes you wish Kollywood would give us more such heroines. With Ashok Selvan getting the lion’s share of the screen time, the actor has his work cut out for him. He has to play three distinctly separate characters, each with their own arcs, flaws and strengths. It’s a credit both to the actor and to Ra Karthik’s script that Arjun, Veera and Prabha are thoughtfully portrayed protagonists, each of whom you grow to care for.
The interesting shift that happens towards the end of the film is when Arjun gets to know what happened to the real Meenakshi, Veera, Madhi and Prabha. Of course the two men look nothing like him nor do Meenakshi and Madhi resemble Shivatmika or Aparna much. What he also learns is that these people he had known only through the journals have fiercely outlasted their tragedies. What impresses in the several plot-twists that are revealed at this juncture is how Ra Karthik talks about enduring the most crushing of upheavals life can throw at us. It isn’t a toxic-positive moralising. Nitham Oru Vaanam recognises the strangle-hold of grief, yet it asks us to fight for our joys from deep within our darkest moments. It gently tells us that defiance in the face of tragedy, even when people around us expect our worlds to come to a crashing halt, is our right. For that, the debutant director and his excellent cast deserve praise.
There is also a surprise cameo appearance here for fans of a certain star to watch out for, which I will keep secret for now. The film isn't without flaws, for all the sassiness written for Aparna Balamurali, there is still a joke about her body. The plot-reveal later in the film about how she and Prabha meet is also dubious. So is the incident that leads to Veera and Meenakshi’s first meeting, one that has little critique from any of the characters. Hopefully, the director avoids that in his next films, while continuing to break Kollywood's moulds about love, women characters and second chances.
Nitham Oru Vaanam released in theatres on November 4.