Movie Review : 19 (1)(a) (Malayalam)

                                                      19 (1) (a) (Malayalam )

So this Sunday evening I thought of giving myself a dose of good cinema and I came across this Malayalam movie called "19 (1) (a) " on Disney plus hotstar starring Nithya Menon and Vijay Sethupathi , Frankly my sole motivation behind watching this movie was the presence of both these outstanding artists in the film and especially Nithya Menen's presence made me enough curious to watch the film given her track record of doing good films. Lets review 19 (1) (a) and also discuss the political and ideological aspects of the film which I found really interesting because it is a film with a strong political foundation based on the ideology and murder of a leftwing journalist and Activist Gauri Lankesh who was shot dead outside her home in Bengaluru in 2017.

The film's title 19 (1) (a) , is actually derived from the Article 19 (a) (1) in the Indian Constitution which guarantees all its citizens the right to freedom of speech and expression, thus the film's entire story is all about freedom of expression and how the critics of the government are being silenced. The film has very few characters with the protagonist played by Nithya Menen and surprisingly her character's name is not revealed in the film which was really fascinating for me, the film depicts the story of a girl played by Nithya Menen who works at a photocopy shop owned by her father, who has pretty much given up on his life and it is his daughter who takes the responsibility of operating the shop and earning the bread for the both of them. Her life is trapped in a monotonous cycle of responsibilities leaving no space for her personal ambitions. One morning a writer named Gauri Shanker played by Vijay Sethupathi walks into her shop handing her a manuscript and asks her to get a photocopy of the whole book by the evening, the protagonist waits for the writer to arrive in the evening but the writer never turns up and finally after a few days she gets a tragic news of the writer being killed by bike-borne assailants for his political views. The film then moves ahead with the protagonist diving deep into the life and the ideology of the writer, she explores that the writer was a staunch advocate of freedom of speech and an ideological critic of the government. The movie however does not have any story and its just based on the ideology and an incident in the life of the writer, its more of a political and ideological expression of the director who wanted to express her political ideology on the silver screen and also it seems that she wanted to pay her adieu to some of her ideological heroes who were allegedly killed by right wing Hindutva groups as claimed in the film. As the movie travels ahead it also shows how the protagonist emerges out of her monotonous life after exploring the path travelled by the writer as we in some of the scenes in the second half towards the end of the movie. Apart from the two main characters, there are not too many characters in the drama because of the nature of the script and its quite remarkable to see how only a few characters can be used to deliver a reasonable story, infact this is something that contributes in conveying the core essence of the film in the most calm and non-chaotic manner.

Next lets discuss the political dimensions of the film because the film itself is based on a particular political ideology and requires at least basic political acumen from the viewer to be able to understand the ideological lineage of the drama to get an overall sense of what the director wants to convey. Now this film is a beautiful example of how the legacy ecosystem in India creates ideologically motivated films in the the most blunt fashion by finely weaving their political agenda in their films while relentlessly accusing the other side of using cinema for their political gains. The non-left in India surely needs to learn from the left to be able to make political films by finely weaving their political agenda with their films since the left has already mastered this art for too long now. Also Malayalam cinema has probably the strongest influence from the left because of the political situation in Kerala and their hypocrisy is of the highest order because the left always portrays itself to be morally superior and correct while accusing the non-left of spreading right wing Hindu propaganda as we have seen in the case of some of the movies in the past. If we pick up this very film and go by the logic that the left has for the other side, then even this film is no shorter than a leftwing propaganda film, but since I genuinely embrace freedom of expression I will not indulge in a senseless game of name calling which the left does all the time. The film portrays, how the critics of the government are being silenced and how freedom of expression is being curbed in the country, this has been the template taken forward by the leftist filmmakers and it is evident in this film as well. But when it comes to free speech of others these very people are the ones who crush free speech under their feet as we have now seen in the case of some of the films in 2022 that were being targeted by the left. So the question is, will the left and its legacy ecosystem defend the freedom of speech of the non-left ? , we haven't yet seen the left practicing what it preaches to its ideological opponents. Finally at the end of this paragraph, I would like to mention that equal freedom should be given to the films from different sides of the ideological spectrum so that in the end viewers have a good blend of movies to pick up from .

Now lets comeback to the film leaving apart the ideological aspects of the film in the previous paragraph and discuss the highlights and the loopholes of the film

The film successfully maintains a poetic tone right from the beginning which really has an ability to charm your mind because of its meditative flow and it almost takes you to a different world in a very leisurely sluggish manner which I personally liked a lot but this kind of a screenplay also leaves a lot of loopholes that indeed examines your patience during the course of the film and it exactly does that in some of the scenes which could have been easily edited out because you feel that whatever is unfolding in the those scenes is quite predictable and you have to kinda forcefully wait for the scenes to get over which creates restlessness and boredom at times and adds substantially to the negatives of the film, thus the screenplay is delightful but leaves a lot of loose ends while I understand the intention of the director to make a truly artistic film. Coming to the performances of the actors, Nithya Menon truly deserves immense appreciation for the portrayal of her character who is innocent, kind and someone who has no ambitions of personal growth in her life and is following what is expected from her without questioning anything, in a scene she says " I do whatever is asked to me" , that scenes really melts your heart and there are many such scenes which show that she is a brilliant actor. Vijay Sethupathi as writer Gauri Shankar delivers a fine performance and his character would have been even more impactful if the writer would have focused on writing more scenes for his character rather than extending a lot of time on unnecessary routine scenes that create boredom. One more character of Nithya's friend played by Athulya Ashadam lends good support as a friend and a lunch companion to Nithya's character, so apart from these all the other actors ( there are very few) have done a fine job of contributing to the story. An attempt to make a calm and meditative film requires exceptional support of the music and Govind Vasantha's music is a treat to the ears and the soul, it perfectly blends with the tone of the film. 19 (a) (1) is a directorial debut of Indhu VS and she has managed to make a reasonably above average film by blending her political ideology with a message from the life of a real character, if one has to understand her attempt of making the film then its more like the film being a subset of a larger political ideology as the political agenda of the film overrides every other aspect of the film, but in today's time your ideological intentions do not always translate into good films although people from the same ideological spectrum will hail this movie as a masterpiece but for commoners it will go down as a well made yet an average film.

Overall 19 (a) (1) is an average film with a heavy political backdrop, you can watch this movie for its brilliant performances and meditative storytelling that will make a section of audience enjoy the movie especially the people who are no fans of commercial cinema and love to indulge in movies with a relaxed storytelling. But for the people who wish to watch an entertaining film without a heavy leftist political agenda should skip this one.