‘Banaras’, which is the second film by art director-turned-director Nemom Pushparaj, is in fact not a bad movie, though there is nothing in it that’s compelling. There are lots of things good about the movie, but there’s nothing that is extraordinary. The most important thing however, is that there aren’t too many negatives to speak about.
‘Banaras’ begins at Banaras, but after a few initial shots the story takes us to Kerala, where we meet Hari, who along with his friends stage street plays against issues that are socially relevant. Hari’s family comprises of his father Balakrishnan Nair, who is very supportive of his son’s ideologies, his step-mother Malathi and his step-sister Malu. The step-mother is exactly what we expect her to be.
Hari and Devu, who is his aunt’s daughter, are in love and their love has the full support of their elders. And then Hari decides to go to Banaras, to do research on North Indian folk art. There is a special reason for choosing Banaras. That’s where his father had worked earlier as a college professor and had met and married his mother, who later passed away in that city itself.
In Banaras Hari meets a young girl, Amritha, who is a dancer and who is studying at the Banaras Hindu University, where he himself is doing research. He also meets Prof. Ananthakrishnan, a former student of his father Balakrishnan Pillai. There is also Paul, a guy who helps him manage things in Banaras. With help from Ananthakrishnan, Hari goes searching for the house where his father and mother lived years back. He is shocked to know that his mother was in fact murdered. From there the story takes off.
Vineeth is good as Hari. Kavya Madhavan too is good as Amritha. Navya Nair, who plays Devu, does the role in her usual style but is not very impressive. Harisree Ashokan as Paul is what he usually is, while Suraaj Venjaramoodu repeats himself and fails to elicit any laughter. It’s high time he stopped doing the same things over and over again. Vijay Menon as Ananthakrishnan, Devan as Balakrishnan Nair, Nedumudi Venu, Urmila Unni and Kalaranjini (as Malathi) are all good. Jagathy Sreekumar is his usual self as Malathi’s brother, a politician. Suresh Krishna bores us as Kishanchand, who’s a goon based in Banaras. Why bother casting a Malayalee artist in the role of a Hindi-speaking guy, when it’s not that difficult to find real Hindi speaking artists?
The songs are good and filmed well too, but may not help the film commercially. The technical aspects are all in tune with the theme and the mood of the film. The hitch is that while the story that ‘Banaras’ seeks to narrate is innovative, the narration itself is the usual, linear type and doesn’t impress you much. The scenarist and the director could have worked more on this aspect and made it more imaginative. The biggest drawback of the film however, is the fact that its treatment, visuals, narration etc, are not what would appeal to filmgoers today. To sum up, Banaras, though not too bad, isn’t very impressive either.
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