19 1 a Review…what went wrong?😔

Year: 2022
Genre: Social Justice, Self-Discovery, Drama
Cast: Vijay Sethupathi, Nithya Menen, Srikant Murali, Athulya Ashadam, Indrajith Sukumaran, Indrans, Bhagath Manuel, Deepak Parambol, Arya Salim, Sreelakshmi
Director: Indhu V.S.
Writer: Indhu V.S.
Cinematographer: Manesh Madhavan
Summary: A young woman’s dull life is interrupted when Gauri, a renowned social activist, hands her an important manuscript before his death

Overall Rating: Water
Seeing Vijay Sethupathi on any poster is always exhilarating and we were so delighted that he featured in a Mollywood production 😀
19(1)(a) had all the right components in terms of script, actors, and production, but we didn’t get why things went wrong…
~Yours To Explore~

Delicious
—We have to give it up to the colorist and cinematography teams for adding vigor to the movie with great accents on the environment and people
—It was relaxing to see a slow-paced screenplay; we noticed A LOT of walking by the main characters, a subtle atmosphere, and nice greenery all around
—Of course, we can never be disappointed when Vijay Sethupathi (playing Gauri) is in the building! He understood his role and perfectly transformed into this carefree, simple, and goal-oriented guy
—Nythia Menen, being a nameless character in the story, quietly emphasized her monotonous and insignificant life. Actually, it was only when the movie ended that we realized she was never called by name.
It was great to see how Gauri became the little ray of light that slowly boosted her confidence

Bland
—As 19(1)(a) refers to the freedom of press/speech law, we were eagerly waiting to be challenged intellectually or motivated to rise up and speak out. We were sincerely rooting for the story to take us on a journey with striking dialogues; unfortunately, we didn’t get much.
Many segments were left incomplete and the film became more like a plane circulating on the runway without ever taking off
—During the entire movie, we didn’t experience or listen to Gauri’s writings even though he was described to pen piercing books. It was only few minutes to the end that we heard few lines of his work, but by that time it was too late
—The extensive amount of background music, regretfully, drowned the momentum
—Many popular actors like Indrans (playing the police officer) and Indrajith (playing Anand) were not properly utilized. Moreover, we kept on hearing that Gauri had enemies but never got to encounter them or know their opposing thoughts