Writers: Muneer Ali, Soubin Shahir
DOP: Littil Swayamp
Cast: Amal Shah, Govind Pai, Shane Nigam, Dulquer Salman
Language: Mattanchery Malayalam
Soubin Shahir is making his directorial debut with this tale of Dove raising kids from Mattanchery. They have a dove flying competition in mind in which the objective is to get the birds to fly for the longest time before they get back to the terrace where they are reared. Over the course of the film we're introduced to three generations of male characters with the other two being one of the kids' elder brother and their gang of friends and rivals and the third being the generation of their fathers who all have now settled down earning bread for their families.
The film is at its best when we are following the story of the kids which is captured in all its raw magnificence. Obvious comparison would be with Guppy which was slightly less feel-good in its portrayal and also had a much more credible and subtle conflict between the generations. Soubin manages to give an authentic feel to everything and it apparently took very long to shoot the film probably because of all the dove scenes. There is even a dove sex scene which was missed by the sanskaari censors. They were probably expecting mating using tears. We're induced to the story of elder brother and their gang towards the interval point and we get Dulquer Salman in Charlie MK II role.
Malayalam films quite often portray Muslim characters in a very cartoonish manner and there were these obnoxious scenes from Charlie and Ustad Hotel where little girls are shown in full black burqas as if it is a cute phenomenon. Parava does its Muslim characters full justice by showing their vulnerabilities instead of extreme piousness. There is one 'blink it you miss scene' where a somewhat insignificant character from film is feeling visibly proud when he sees Hashim Amla getting a century on TV. Detailing is quite in vogue in Malayalam cinema ever since Maheshinte Prathikaaram.
Parava is around 150 minutes long and am usually sceptical when films go that long. But you never feel any lag whole way through it. Still you are left with feeling that they didn't properly mesh it together and some of the scenes don't make much sense. Kids are introduced to the villains in a very convenient manner and that acts as a segue to the flashback scenes. Dulquer Salman can only be introduced with him hitting a six in the last over. But what follows make fuck all sense because he is seen getting himself deliberately run out to give strike to Shane Nigam, who apparently is the star batsman. Even some of the climax scenes make not much sense as the kids go from heartbreak to elation and then again to heartbreak for no obvious reason. I wish they had given even more prominence to the kids storyline and leave us giving only hints about the other storyline involving Dulquer Salman and Shane Nigam. Overall, Parava is a good watch with great technical excellence and casting choices but could have been even better with some prudent editing and writing choices.
Rating: 3.25/5
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