Shyamaprasad’s Hey Jude (2018) Movie Review

Star Cast: Nivin Pauly, Trishna Krishnan, Siddique, Neena Kurup, Vijay Menon and Aju Varghese
Music Composed by Gopi Sundar, Rahul Raj, M Jayachandran and Ouseppachan
Directed by Shyamaprasad
Cinematography by Girish Gangadharan
Edited by Karthik Jogesh
Censor Certificate: U
Runtime: 146 Minutes

Whenever I or we watch a film, we try to concentrate more on its face value. Like how entertaining it is and how many songs does it have? How many fights? How many scenes? How did the glamour dose work for us? What choices did characters take? Are we ok with them or not? It is all we care about. These days for social media a bit more about where did they copy from? How did the actor perform? What is the story and how is it going to unfold?

All questions that a 100/-, 50/- or 150/-, 250/-, 350/- per ticket will answer us. We are programmed to look at a film that way. Even in our daily life, we are programmed to look everything in the same way. Don’t get offended by this. But think, don’t we all want a tag? Some need to be Atheist, some need to be Conformist, some needs to be judgemental and some needs to be broad-minded. All these things help us to have an identity, to identify others and pass a judgment rather than understand. There is a thin line between passing a judgement and understanding. Judgement has rules and regulations, while understanding doesn’t confine to any boundaries and we may have to push ours too.

Don’t take all this as a lecture or an argument of superiority. I am superior to none, just sharing thoughts, that’s all. At times, films do get overanalyzed and over-criticised as well. Even I might have done that on numerous of occasions to just simplify it all. To say, this is this, that is that, we have defined this and that. Make it all a mathematical equation deriving a solution to say, Hence Proved. Yes, I am hence proving a film as a meritorious art form or a trashy art bin, every film I watch. I am being judgemental but then started getting bored of that tunneled vision and tried to understand it more.

What am I missing? Why did a person thought this is important to be made? What is the drive and what is the ‘get’? What am I getting and what is that filmmaker getting?! That became more liberating and at the same time more consuming. The logic of defining or rating evaporated. Why am I being personal? Well, Hey Jude, is more personal than it appears to the naked eye. It is more brutally honest in saying what my tunnel vision, Asperges Syndrome cost me and how liberated it is to not hold back due to rules.

At the structural base, this movie is a love story between Jude and Crystal, who need each other to complete. That’s why become each other’s cure. As the director, Shayamprasad decided to give us a closer POV from Jude and an outsider POV from Crystal, we feel everyone around Jude are trying to reform him or getting connected to just because of his ‘abnormal’ condition. Even Jude feels so, but then his father points out, everyone has their own madness and driven by that, we stop opening up and welcoming. We need liberation to welcome, hence Jude needed to liberate from being caught up in his own world and had to be more understanding or at least put an effort. Even Crystal needed that.

When we reflect on the movie more, there is a deeper meaning to each character and their traits. Father is more restless and too pushy. He comes to a worldview that has been imbibed in us for ages. He is the reflection of society. He reflects what we always here. While as Jude, we find an object or a person to vent out (here camera), we also long for acceptance as we are. There should be no burdens, no judges. Then, we will react to things as well. Just like how Jude found music in mathematics. We find pleasure in first monsoon rain and our senses highlight this when we smell the drops of pure joy on a barren hot land. Can we do that with constant bickering society on our shoulders?? We always want something to go our way, something to please us every minute, just like the time we eat should be fixed, the things we like should be on the menu. Rather what if we eat because we are hungry and give out that much energy to work on passion? Who knows what we end up being. But it is important to let ourselves be discovered as we discover us. 

Nivin Pauly has moulded himself into such a likable actor that his efforts seem absent in a performance. He doesn’t shout out and say, see how good a performer, I am. He subtlety slips into the character and we end up liking him in that. A trait many good actors develop over a period of time and he has too. Trisha Krishnan for once did not depend on her dancing skills, exposing glamour but dug her teeth into the character and came out bright. Every actor makes a lasting impression even if it is just for one scene.

In conclusion, while tunneled vision makes us all hypocrites of what we believe, a liberated broader mindset do need to differentiate between judging and understanding. No, Darwin can explain us, how complicated our nerves are and what part of them caused for a thought process to build, as there is no fixed pattern for how thought generates. It is us, who needs to start looking at things differently than we used to and compare. As the survival of the fittest is more evolved more liberated. With all the cinematic and creative liberties, Shayamprasad crafts a film that we can visit and re-visit while identifying it flaws appreciating it merits as well. See you next time.

Theatrical Trailer: