Hey Jude movie review: The Nivin Pauly and Trisha starrer is beautiful but slow
Hey Jude movie review: In parts, Shyamaprasad has overstretched the narration even as there was not enough material to support him Hey Jude movie review: In parts, Shyamaprasad has overstretched the narration even as there was not enough material to support him
Hey Jude movie cast: Nivin Pauly, Trisha, Siddique
Hey Jude movie director: Shyamaprasad
Hey Jude movie rating: 2.5 stars
At the end of Hey Jude, I had mixed feelings. While director-writer Shyamaprasad has created pleasant characters in the backdrop of a breezy Goa, he takes his own sweet time to establish the problems of Jude and other characters in the film.
“The length of a film should be directly related to the endurance of the human bladder,” Alfred Hitchcock said it for a reason. Shyamaprasad shows no hurry in getting to the point and frequently the film loses its grip on the audience due to its pace. In the meantime, it can’t be written off just because of its slow pace.
Jude (Nivin Pauly) is a 28-year-old man with special abilities. It is only much, much later his parents Dominic (Siddique) and mother (Neena Kurup), find out that he is not normal like other people. Dominic is lost in making money, Neena seeks help for their son only through her prayers. Jude’s younger sister rather enjoys the freedom that she gets from Jude remaining the main problem of the family. The question is how come Jude’s special condition escaped the attention of his family members, teachers, friends and others?
For Dominic and Neena, it comes as a shocking news when a phycologist says Jude is not like ‘normal people.’ Duh. How can they forget that they weren’t treating Jude as a normal 28-year-old fully grown man in the first place? He was different and obsessed with certain tasks, things and ocean life. His personality clearly suggested he was a man with special needs. It is difficult for a second to buy Shyamaprasad’s narrative that it never occurred to Jude’s parents to seek out a doctor to help their son.
Jude’s life takes an unexpected turn when his great-something relative dies in an accident in Goa. Jude’s mother promises him to buy an aquarium of his choice to convince him to tag along with them. It is in Goa, Jude becomes friends with Sebastian (Vijay Menon) and his daughter Crystal (Trisha), who has been living in Dominic’s dead aunt’s compound.
Dominic is at war with Sebastian and Crystal, while he makes Jude befriend them for selfish reasons. Sebastian, a psychologist, identifies the genius in Jude and the problem that makes him different than the others. His daughter Crystal also suffers from bad mood-swings. We don’t get to see much of Crystal’s bipolar disorder, as Shyamaprasad stays focused on Jude. Let’s not forget, the film’s title is Hey Jude and not Hey Crystal.
The film feels like a grown-up version of Taare Zameen Par. While Nivin plays that kid with special needs, Trisha plays Aamir Khan’s compassionate teacher role. As expected there is a love angle to the relationship between Nivin and Trisha. Shyamaprasad comes up short on convincing us on how and when they fell in love. How did a mentor and mentee relationship become romantic? Was Crystal’s feeling for Jude real love or her sympathy for him drew her closer to him? Shyamaprasad wants us to believe that the abnormalities in them played the cupid. Like Pat and Tiffany from Silver Linings Playbook. But, it isn’t convincing.
The highlight of the film is the subtle comedy in the narrative that draws laughs from us at unexpected situations. And the natural performances by the cast is also endearing. Siddique nails as a money-minded and prudent person, who values his relatives based only on the assets they leave behind for him. Vijay Menon strikes a chord with his scenes with Siddique and Trisha maintains a firm grip on her character. A grip that she has perfected by years of playing bold, beautiful and charming characters throughout her career.
Hey Jude is Nivin’s canvas. He has gained a huge amount of body weight to play the character and strikes home with the performance of an unconfident, introvert person with serious socialising problems.
In parts, Shyamaprasad has overstretched the narration even as there was not enough material to support him. A crisp editing may have helped this film become more engaging.
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