When a film is titled “Madhuram” it has two implications. One, the film will talk about sweetness of life in general and, secondly, it will have the sweetness of a feel good movie. “ Madhuram” lives upto these two promises. My only grouse with the film is that it is little too sweet and its world is infested entirely with human angels. If the world we live in were an extension of Madhuram’s cinematic space, then there would have been only peace, love, compassion and joy around us. No honor killings, no communal hatred, no political killings/crimes….to say the least, Joju would never have reacted against the congress party’s rode blockade that harshly; he would have gone to them, spoken to the leaders in his characteristic soft, base tone about the plight of a patient who was stranded there. The leaders eyes would become watery and they would immediately call off the blockade and rush to take the patient to the hospital. Such a world would have been really boring. If there’s no evil, there will be no goodness. But this over sweetness of Madhuram is pardonable because the film addresses some extreme situations in human life with a certain joyful resilience that makes it an enjoyable watch. The brilliance of the concept lies in the story’s setting; The big hall in Erankakulam district general hospital which is shared by the bystanders is the space where all the stories unfold. That’s a stroke of sheer brilliance. It allows the director to weave together different lives, different sorrows, different conflicts and destinies deftly. There you meet the protagonist Sabu (Joju) waiting for his paralysed wife Chithra ( Sruthi Ramachandran) to come back walking towards him. Their love story is narrated beautifully. There we have also Kevin (Arjun Asokan) who is on the verge of divorcing his wife portrayed by Nikhila Vimal, Ravi (Indrans) who always boasts of his beautiful marriage that has lasted four decades, Thaju a happy-go-lucky young man who falls for the girl next bed. How these characters learn from each other and survive their misfortunes is the film all about. All the actors here are in top form. Joju is brilliant. So is Shruti. Arjun and Nikhila are perfect counterpoints to Joju-Sruthi. Indrans is fabulous. Songs and BGM really elevate the mood of the film. Smart cinematography, but edit could have been smarter. The writing is very good; but towards the end it becomes too good and preachy and we start wondering whether Jis Joy has suddenly taken over the screenplay. Ahammad Kabeer has done a great job and his mastery over the craft is evident. But an young man like him shouldn’t have treated the word, “divorce” as poison. In the unreal world he creates, where everyone is an angel, divorce may be a sin; but, unfortunately in the real world that we live in we are what we are and divorce is a deliverance from suffering for a lot of people. I sincerely hope Ahammad Kabeer is going to stay here and give us great films. He has all the talent. I suggest a simple exercise to him that will help sharpen his sensibility: look at Jis Joy’s picture every day and utter loudly three times: “NO…!”
