After the unprecedented success of Andhadhun, many filmmakers have shown tremendous interest in its story to be remade in other Indian languages. The film based on a French short film L’Accordeur (The Piano Tuner) has inspired Sriram Raghavan who developed the story along with Hemanth M Rao, Pooja Ladha Surti, Arijit Biswas, and Yogesh Chandekar and made Andhadhun with Ayushmann Khurrana, Tabu, and Radhika Apte in lead roles.
Andhadhun was made in Telugu as Maestro starring Nithiin and Bhramam in Malayalam featuring Prithviraj Sukumaran, which is streaming now on Amazon Prime Video.
https://snooper-scope.in/maestro-review-a-true-remake-but-without-soul-in-parts/
Story
Everybody pretty well knew the story very well. A pretended to be blind pianist Ray Mathews (Prithviraj Sukumaran) witnesses the murder of veteran actor Uday Kumar (Shankar). His wife Simi (Mamata Mohandas) and her paramour C.I. Dinesh Prabhakaran (Unni Mukundan) were involved in the murder and being blind to the chain of incidents, Ray could not do much.
Meanwhile, the dream of Ray to go to Europe gets dashed as he becomes a victim of the organ selling racket. The story takes several unexpected turns and how Ray overcomes all the challenges to fulfill his dream is the main story of Bhramam.
Performances
Prithiviraj Sukumaran is a hell of an actor who can pull out any character with ease and total perfection. As Ray Mathews, Prithviraj once again demonstrated his versatility as an actor which was the special attraction of the film.
Mamta Mohandas in a character with negative shade has excelled while Raashi Khanna as the lady love Anna of Ray Mathews looks charming and both of them looked amazing on the screen.
Aneesh Gopal, Sminu Sijo, and Jagadish have done well in their respective characters.
Behind the scenes
Ravi K Chandran’s narrative was refreshing although it was a remake and the native touch given to the story was appreciable. Good to see the story unfolding in Kerala itself unlike in other versions which added more nativity to the narration.
Some of the scenes were not a carbon copy of the original and boar replacing the hare was itself an indication of the out-of-box thinking which was quite heartening..
The music by Jakes Bejoy and cinematography by Ravi K Chandran himself have given the necessary fillip to the narrative.
Final Verdict
On the whole, it’s a refreshing remake marked by compelling performances by the lead actors, particularly, Prithviraj Sukumaran who had shown great variation. Ultimately, it’s the story that matters a lot, and because of its strength only this film has been getting excellent response in all languages. Full credit invariably should go to Sriram Raghavan, the original creator.
