The 'Delivery' could have been better

Familiarity breeds contempt, however, in Mollywood it seems the season belongs to pregnant women. Here comes Aneesh Anwar with ‘Zachariyayude Garbhinikal’, the second film in two months based on pregnancy, of course, sans the hype of the previous one.

The film narrates the incidents in the life of Dr Zachariya, a veteran gynecologist, and five women who come into his life.

The story has everything associated with human life - hope,joy, despair, pain, deceit and abuse. Despite treading on a rather serious subject, the flick is definitely a fun-filled ride.

The lead characters, Fathima (Rima Kallungal) is a nurse working in Zachariya’s hospital, Jasmine Jennifer (Geetha ) is a nun, Saira (Sanusha) a Plus-II student and Anuradha (Sandra Thomas) the wife of a terminally ill rich man, Hari (Joy Mathew). Three of them are ‘pregnant’, while one, fakes pregnancy. Jasmine, an elderly woman is pregnant through artificial insemination after relinquishing her life as a nun. If it is the friend of Anuradha’s husband gifted Jasmine pregnancy, in Saira’s case it is a secret, a bitter truth. Fathima, in an attempt to avoid punishment, acts as a pregnant woman.

The film makes a mark in the slang usage of the northern tip of Kerala, which is also one of the high lights of the film. Though with certain minor flaws, the Kasargodan dialect admittedly treated with its rustic innocence.

Though none of the actresses are pregnant in real (unlike that of Kalimannu), they all put up a convincing show. Sanusha, who steals the show as a pregnant teenager, needs a special mention.

As the lass from Kasargod, Rima does a classy act while Aju Varghese as her lover. Among the actors, Lal does the tickling trik again, following the suit of ‘Shutter’ and ‘Ozhimuri’, while the Joy Mathew makes a cool presence.

Vishnu Narayan’s camera and the background score by Prashanth pillai has been effective in elevating the mood of the plot.

The pros having said, many a thing mar the integrity of the film. For sure, a better tight screenplay would have placed Zachariya and his team into one of the best screen experiences in recent times. A detailed home work should have been done on matters including television journalism and modalities of medical field.

The dialogue writer should have made an ernest effort to to listen to how people speak in natural situations rather than delivering literature on screen. The voice over given by actor Indrajith, on many an occasion, is jarring as it turns into a commentary of the previous scene.

However, no doubt that director has traveled a long way in showing a lot of maturity in his second film from his debut. Why, he fares much better with the ‘fake’ pregnancies when the ‘real’ one has failed!

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