Vaashi Movie Review

Preview

Vaashi is a 2022 Indian courtroom drama movie in Malayalam, written and directed by Vishnu G. Raghav, produced by G Suresh Kumar, and co-produced by Menaka Suresh Revathy Suresh.

Kailas Menon wrote the soundtrack for the movie, which features Tovino Thomas and Keerthy Suresh as the main characters. The movie premiered in theatres on June 17, 2022.

To launch their legal professions, aspiring attorney Ebin Mathew teams up with his buddy and fellow advocate Madhavi Mohan to share a new office space. As soon as they find themselves on opposing sides of a lawsuit, their friendship becomes strained.

Cast Of the Movie

• Tovino Thomas as Adv. Ebin Mathew
• Keerthy Suresh as Adv. Madhavi Mohan
• Anu Mohan as Gautam Ganesh
• Anagha Narayanan as Anusha Shivakumar
• Baiju Santhosh as Adv. Satheesh Mulloor
• Kottayam Ramesh as Magistrate
• G. Suresh Kumar as Mathew
• Nandhu as Shivakumar
• Rony David as Jose
• Maya Menon
• Sreelakshmi as Madhavi's Mother
• Geethi Sangeetha as Satheesh's Wife
• Maya Viswanath
• Arya as Nandhitha
• Vanitha Krishnachandran
• RJ Raghu as Vimal
• Meera Nair PS as Elsy
• Amal Rajdev as Ganesh
• Vijaya Kumari as Ganesh's wife

Plot Of the Movie

The story begins with two lawyers named Madhu and Ebin, who constantly appear at odds. Ebin attempts to establish himself independently despite coming from a politically connected family. Madhu needs help creating her identity at a law business where men predominate.

They have a common friend, Satheesh Mulloor, a senior, and the three of them regularly eat lunch together. Satheesh informs Ebin that he may rent a specific office space if interested but declines to do so since he's still determining his ability.

Madhu resigned from her work because she was unfairly held accountable for a clerk's lost documents. She now desires to litigate on her own. Ebin responds that he also wants the office space when Madhu asks Satheesh whether she may rent the area he refers to.

Satheesh assures them that there's space for the two of them to share. After renting the place, Ebin and Madhu hesitantly agree, but their relationship grows, and they gradually fall in love.

Ebin decides to come clean to her one day. Instead of being straightforward, he concocts a tale about how he must go out on a date with a match that his mother has selected for him. Madhu casually informs him that she, too, wants to go on a date similar to his.

Madhu jokingly admits to him that she had detected his falsehoods and had a deep affection for him later that evening while they were talking. Their relationship officially begins with this.

A few days later, when Ebin's parents inform him that they want him to marry, he discloses his relationship with Madhu. His parents claim that although they expected this, they are cautious because of their various religious upbringings. They are able to overcome this, though, very quickly.

On the other hand, Madhu is cautious since her profession has yet to be established. Since his brother-in-law, Jose, made some connections to put him well ahead of his colleagues, Ebin has begun working as a public prosecutor. Madhu's anxieties are exacerbated because she hasn't caught up. Ebin requests that she give it some thought and take some time.

She receives a case in the interim for a friend of her family. The friend's brother, Gautham, has been charged with rape after allegedly having sex with a woman under false pretences of marriage. He needs Madhu to prove his innocence. Ebin receives an identical case, and his task is to incriminate Gautham.

Both parties are unhappy about the couple's positions at the case's opposing ends. They maintain their relationship's safety by ignoring the uncomfortable silence between them as the investigation progresses. They are married and begin their new life, but they continue to avoid one other like the plague.

When Jose calls Madhu to a police station one day to assist him with a specific case, everything erupts. Madhu advises him to take the case to court rather than the police station, saying it would be useless for her to go there. Later that day, Ebin advises that she should have left on her own because doing so would have given Jose confidence in the situation.

However, Madhu insists she needs to gain the skill set for such pointless diplomacy. The relationship becomes even more tense, and problems they had previously neglected start to bubble to the surface.

Satheesh suggests that Ebin come over for dinner at his place to start a reconciliation between them. As a result of the worsening circumstances, Ebin and Madhu decide to make a bet that if Ebin loses the case, he will resign from his position as a public prosecutor and go back to their previous workplace.

The pair is becoming more and more apart as the case progresses. They begin going to work separately and even begin to sleep in different rooms. As Gautham tells Madhu that he knows Anusha has affection for him, the situation becomes more complicated. Anusha tells Ebin that she does not want to imprison Gautham for a lengthy period.

Saira, a close friend of Gautham and Anusha, arrives to testify in court at the penultimate hearing. Despite knowing Anusha's sentiments, she claims she was still determining if Gautham was also aware of them. As a result, the prosecution's case is now different because there is no longer evidence proving that Gautham controlled Anusha.

Ebin realizes that Anusha, not Madhu, is to blame for what has transpired. She explains that she never expressed her thoughts to Gautham in a direct manner when he asked why she did it. In addition, they both need to have talked at least once the day after they slept together to avoid allowing things to come to this. She regrets the results of their inability to communicate.

Later in the day, Satheesh counsels Ebin to make amends with his wife and not let their argument ruin everything. Ebin complies. He rides his bike to follow Madhu as he used to instead of using his car. When they arrive at their home, they embrace while crying openly to express the hurt their fight has given them.

In court the next day, the judge ruled that even if the prosecution could not show that Gautham had promised the victim marriage, the fact that he had contact with her while intoxicated made him a culprit. He was given a 10-year prison term as a consequence of his actions.

After that, Madhu and Ebin conclude that they should keep their relationship strong as they will continue to cope with these gray areas. It also appears that Madhu intends to file a High Court appeal. A bittersweet conclusion helps us see relationships objectively and what it takes to make them function beyond our particular identities.

Review Of The Movie

Vaashi, a Malayalam movie with a like scenario, arrives three years after the Hindi courtroom drama titledSection 375hit the screens, supported by dynamic performances by Akshaye Khanna and Richa Chadda.

Nevertheless, despite these similarities, Vaashi still functions as a family drama, making it an engaging watch without using dramatization.

While you wish he had started the movie a little slower, actor-turned-directorVishnu G Raghavdoes a respectable job in his first filmmaking outing by keeping things boiling for the duration of the picture.

Incorporating more study and legal skills would have given the court scenes more punch and brevity. Nevertheless, despite having a runtime of more than 150 minutes, Vaashi doesn't lag.

One sequence features Keerthy Suresh responding in Malayalam to Tovino Thomas' minute-long submission to the court, which may seem strange to some viewers. This reviewer was immediately brought back to a young girl lawyer acquaintance who had described how certain senior judges in the High Court would get scared when arguments were presented in a regional language rather than the more common English and how this tactic was often used to balance power.

A progressive tone permeates the entire movie, and there is no preaching. Uncertainty surrounds the intentionality of certain apparent connections between the main narrative and the personal lives of the leads and whether others are merely coincidences. The conclusion comes off as a little strange and like a compromise.

Using judicial subjectivity to support a decision would indicate that the law's actual parsing was insufficient. By the end, the lead's egos and personal equations have also overtaken the courtroom drama. The most significant part of the movie is Keerthy Suresh, who portrays a professional-looking woman who carries herself professionally.

Thankfully, despite the tension in Ebin and Madhavi's marriage, this movie is not very emotional. And the viewers might have been relieved that the parents of Ebin and Madhavi didn't make a big deal out of their interfaith union in the film. They initially show a little reluctance, but subsequently, they accept it with the proper attitude.

Without a doubt, Tovino and Keerthy's chemistry propels the movie forward. Both the humorous circumstances and the times of silence treatment are valued equally. These two thoughtful and sensitive people try but sometimes fail to keep their professional lives separate from their personal lives.

The second essential character in the movie is senior lawyer Baiju Santhosh, who develops a strong friendship with the leads who serve as its anchor. In their comparatively minor roles, Kottayam Ramesh was the magistrate, and Rony David was Vanitha Krishnachandran, Suresh Kumar, and Sreelakshmi, and they did a good job.

And then there is Anu Mohan, whose character is darker than was presumably intended while always wearing a stock expression.

Vaashi is an excellent effort by a first-time director. The technical aspects are sufficient, the photography is appealing, and the music fits the story effectively. Vaashi is a one-time watch, although it may have been more compelling if the narrative had been tightened.

Final Verdict

Instead of spoon-feeding a tale to the audience, Malayalam movies tend to trust them to comprehend it with all its complexities. Because there was no apparent right or wrong, the characters weren't exalted, and there wasn't any unduly emotional background music, the audience could interpret the plot in their manner.

There are evident flaws in every single character. The charm of "Vaashi" is created by how they receive recognition without being judged.

Although Ebin and Madhu were always aware of the moral decisions the other was making, they accepted such decisions as being inherent in their line of work. They avoided bringing those opinions into their romantic connection. They fought over egos rather than over opposing beliefs, which is why they did so.

Only when they realized this could they come to an amicable agreement. We wholeheartedly concur that this is the model for how a romantic movie ought to be made.