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| Ohm Shanti Oshana |
Story: The film is about a school girl who falls in love with a youth in her village and the story traces the course of her romance
It's not easy to dismiss Ohm Shanthi Oshana as a trivial teenage romance attached with its most routine side-effects and sweetness. The film is a breezy ride that compels viewers to listen to a girl who narrates her romance with a share of good-natured silliness and emotional warmth that defines romance regardless of age.
An adolescent school girl, Pooja Mathew (Nazriya) falls for Giri (Nivin Pauly), a youth who is relatively older to her. The narrative posits the girl at the centre, progressing on as she recollects the course of her love. The track is typical, but romantic and when it's about a girl who pursues the boy, the charm is undeniable.
Working jointly with Midhun Manuel Thomas, director Jude Anthony Joseph adorns the script with an easy, playful sense of humour evoking mirthful laughter even out of moments reserved for plain, serious talk. Midhun and Jude employ the skill deftly, completely cutting off the slightest trace of lewdness and punctuating sober, emotionally grave scenes with mild, gentle humour.
A girl besotted with a youth spills over with insecurity and jealousy and she has to deal with a kid who continuously pulls at her hair from behind in a restaurant. The girl, though fuming and ranti
ng, patiently tells the kid no, the kid repeats it, the girl draws out her hair-band and flings at the kid, even chiding her to gobble it. The scene serves the purpose smartly, lightens the inevitable burden of the emotional moment and at the same time captures the innocuous angst of a teenager blindly in love with a young man.
The film is immensely helped by some genuine good sense with the director placing his heart in the right areas. He deals with a simple tale of love tagged with certain unavoidable cliches. He doesn't try to complicate it, rather lets the narrative take the course in the most natural manner. Never before has Nazriya looked more ebullient, mostly because of the fact that she does a role that perfectly suits her age. Nivin does so little yet with so much good effect that his bratty, casual streak gels with the narrative flow. Ohm Shanti Oshana never lets its viewers digress because of its warm simplicity.