Pranaya Vilasam review: A few poignant moments keep this Arjun Ashokan, Anaswara Rajan-starrer afloat

2.5/5

Village officer Rajeev (Manoj KU) and his son Sooraj (Arjun Ashokan) go about their lives taking Anu for granted. But after an incident, the men get to know her better through her diary, which reveals a past relationship. The father-son duo then reconnect to trace Anu's former love. 

The first 15-20 minutes of Pranaya Vilasam focuses on Rajeev, a village officer, and his son Sooraj, a college student as one tries to rekindle his relationship with his former love while other makes peace with his past relationships with the help of his current girlfriend. Even as they go on about their lives, we see how glimpses of how they take Anu (wife and mother) for granted, and are engrossed in their own relationships. In fact, her role evolves through a series of stereotypical events including watching TV serials, washing clothes and cooking. And yet debutant filmmaker Nikhil Muraly and scriptwriters Jyothish M and Sunu AV create a few poignant moments to keep the audience hooked to what happens next after a tragedy. 

However, this also happens to be the only high point in the film, which never gets going from there. 

The intention of the writers was probably to draw parallels to the romances of the father and son, while showing that the woman in the family has another side to her life that they were unaware of. This would have worked, had they delved deeper on the former two relationships instead of just skimming the surface by hinting at an unrequited romance and a more understanding one. 

The second half of the movie is about the father and son tracing Anu's romance. While this too has its set of moments, mostly through Manoj KU and Arjun Ashokan's characters, Anu's backstory becomes rather predictable, especially with her boyfriend's character being defined as a hot-headed youngster from the start.

The strength of the movie are the emotional moments, connected to the void that Anu leaves in the lives of those she loved the most. Shaan Rahman's music also helps accentuate this. With regards to acting, Arjun Ashokan, Anaswara Rajan, Manoj KU and Hakkim Shah get the meatier parts in this film, which leaves a lot unexplained about Miya and Mamitha Baiju's characters.

While watching Pranaya Vilasam, you wouldn't be amiss if you feel that it's a film put together after it got its brand and satellite partners in place as there are obvious plugs throughout the movie. It's also one of those films that is better suited to be released on an OTT platform.

Apart from a few moments that would tug at heartstrings, Pranaya Vilasam is a meandering affair that doesn't quite hit home.