If Sollividava establishes anything at all, it is the fact that the director needs a lesson or two in portraying romance – or just about any emotion, for that matter.
The script has the leads – Aishwarya Arjun and Chandan – engage in what it thinks is light, flirtatious banter, before journeying towards the inevitable (well supported by hearts, lest it escapes the audience), but this isn’t the kind of film where one looks for nuance. Fifteen minutes into Sollividava, there’s the stark realisation that the script wouldn’t quite rise above being a launchpad for Aishwarya Arjun. Written, directed, produced and distributed by Arjun Sarja, with what seems like the whole of Arjun clan is in the project, this family enterprise features Aishwarya Arjun swishing down in an array of outfits, flicking hair from this side to that, and spouting dialogues off ‘Romeo & Juliet’. For the film is a romance, and that needs to be established… just in case the script’s ineffectuality surfaces before the leads’ love for each other.
When Sollividava begins, Madhu, a television journalist, (Aishwarya) is seen reprimanding an industrialist on her show… for ignoring his mother. A tearful union of mother and son later, Madhu is sent on an assignment: To cover the Kargil war for her channel. A reporter from a rival channel is on the mission, too. He’s brilliant, the film hints, having floated up a camera tied to a balloon to expose a corrupt and murderous politician. The director-writer seems unable to help himself, adding a very unassuming congratulatory note by way of dialogue: You seem better than Mudhalvan’s Arjun!
Soon, the reporters embark on the journey together, fall out of favour with each other, but fall in love anyway – all set against Arjun’s favourite backdrop – Nationalism. There’s war, strife, some patriotic (and religious) fervor, songs that aren’t tailored to fit, and a romance that seems extremely insipid at best.
Recommended
Sollividava may have been well-intentioned, as a tale that would explore conflict within and outside of a relationship, but it’s jarringly superficial, right down to the cast and locales. The Kargil scenes are a welcome relief, but even those aren’t enough to sustain interest in a film that seems content with its focus on style over substance.
*****
The Sollividava review is a Silverscreen original article. It was not paid for or commissioned by anyone associated with the movie. Silverscreen.in and its writers do not have any commercial relationship with movies that are reviewed on the site.