Venu and Murali’s fates are intertwined by destiny in a coastal town in Kerala. One wants to become a filmmaker and another, a music composer like Malayali virtuoso MS Baburaj. So like Baburaj and the dreamers who came before them, off they set to Madras to see if their tiny dream can make them a living. The film is driven by the biggest and tiniest butterfly effects that instantly bring a sheepish smile to your face. A paruppu vadai isn’t just a snack that consoles a heartbroken Venu, but a snack that changes his fate because it co-incidentally comes bundled in a newspaper that introduces him to his future best friend. A drink with a well-wisher turns out to be a wrench in the works for one, while a chance encounter with a producer (a hilarious Aju Varghese) alters a person’s fortunes. In any other film, these would just be coincidences, but Vineeth’s treatment of the moments make every small high and low in these friends’ lives an unforgettable event in the cosmos.
So what this does is make us, the viewers, an intrinsic part of their lives. Why else does our heart feel like it’s being held by an unsteady hand when Venu and Murali enter the leaky Swami Lodge in Kodambakkam? When Venu finally gets the chance to play the violin after an orchestra is down a person, why does your emotion leap? Vineeth also gets the smallest things about friendships right — be it the joy that takes over one’s face when a friend finally wins in life to the shared giddy joy of doing something stupid but exhilarating together. The writing in the film is strongest when the director brings his characteristic good-heartedness to an otherwise straightforward friendship drama.
