Selfie is the most trending form of self expression. The euphoria that is derived from a selfie escalates with the number of people captured in each snap. Prajith Gopinath’s debut film ‘Oru Vadakkan Selfie’ (OVS) is one such attempt to encapsulate the myriad hues of Umesh’s (Nivin Pauly) struggle to pass a seemingly insuperable BTech course along with his close chums Shaji (Aju Varghese) and Thankaprasad (Neeraj Madhav).
The story begins at a college hostel on an examination eve. Umesh somehow manages to get hold of a ‘leaked’ question paper which he distributes among his classmates. And thus, begins his eventful life’ie. Back home, life is bland and monotously normal.A grubby and preachy father, cloyingly emotional and affable mother and a pesky sister. To get away from this jarring humdrum, Umesh decides to become a filmmaker and begins work on his short film.
Daisy (Manjima Mohan) who comes to Umesh’s neigbhourhood becomes his inspiration and he develops a crush on her. In his endeavour to become a director he decides to go to Chennai and incidentally meets Daisy, who is also headed for Chennai. He steals a selfie with Daisy without her knowledge and sents it to Shaji. It becomes a turning point in his life and the plot thickens.
The highlight of OVS is the first half as it is deeply engaging and many of the jokes will leave you in splits. Nivin, Aju and Neeraj have given their best to give life to these sequences. Director Prajith Gopinath has done a remarkable job to amass the first half in a commendable manner. But after the interval, when the real story begins, it stoops into cliche and gets a tad boring.
Vineeth sreenivasan, who penned OVS, has proven his prowess with themes like Friendship (Malarvadi Arts Club) and Love (‘Thattathin Marayathu’). But handling social themes like human trafficking (‘Thira’)he grapples and fails to deliver convincingly.
But having said that, Manjima Mohan, who won the state award for best child artist for ‘Madhuranombarakattu’, essays a decent performance. Her role dominates much of the second half of the film. Nivin Pauly is tantalising enough. Cinematography by Jomon T John blends well with the tempo of the movie. Shaan Rahman also plays his cards well with the music.
Humour is sprinkled lavishly in the first half. However, the serious tone that forms the latter portion do not fit well into the overall ‘selfie’ of the film. It’s watchable for the humorous scenes, eye-candy Nivin Pauly and bubbly Manjima Mohan.