''Varthamanam'' is an Indian

Malayalam Malayalam (; , ) is a Dravidian languages, Dravidian language spoken in the Indian state of Kerala and the union territories of Lakshadweep and Puducherry (union territory), Puducherry (Mahé district) by the Malayali people. It is one of 2 ...

-language social drama film directed by Sidhartha Siva, stars

Parvathy Thiruvothu Parvathy Thiruvothu Kottuvattaa (born 7 April 1988) is an Indian actress who predominantly appears in Malayalam and Tamil language films. She is the recipient of a National Film Award, four Filmfare Awards South, and two Kerala State Film Award ...

Roshan Mathew Roshan Mathew (born 22 March 1992) is an Indian actor who works predominantly in Malayalam films and Hindi, Tamil & Telugu films. He began his career with numerous theatre productions based in Chennai and Mumbai. These include ''The Glass M ...

and Siddique. The film is produced by Benzy Nazar and Aryadan Shoukath under Benzy productions, written by Aryadan Shoukath.

Plot

Faiza Sufiya joins Delhi University as a research student who is researching on Abdurahiman Sahib, a freedom fighter from Malabar. She gets acquainted with Amal and other students with a sharp political stance. Her roommate was a student from one of the scheduled castes, Tulsa and she is the first one from her community to acquire higher studies. The activists and the anti-fascists of the university are protesting for the rights of Rohan, one of the students from scheduled caste. Faiza also becomes a part of it. The friends then jointly go for the wedding of Tulsa's brother. The Fascists of the university begin to go against them after the seminar conducted by Faiza. However, the dynamics of campus life take new forms after the killing of her roommate's brother, for killing a cow. The entire students of the university led by Faiza and her friends except for the anti-fascists support and stand for Tulsa, who had returned home after the tragic incident in her family. Following the humiliation and injustice faced by the backward communities and with the support from Pothuvaal, they decide to perform a

skit Skit may refer to: * * A short segment in a performance, such as: ** Sketch comedy ** Hip hop skit ** Puppet skit ** Promo (professional wrestling) * Skit note, parody of a banknote See also * Skete A skete ( ) is a monastic communi ...

supporting them and to make the other students realise those difficulties. As the other members of the team cannot be attacked, Faiza becomes the target of the anti-fascists. They fabricate accusations on her to be an anti-nationalist. Due to the accusations she is declared to be an anti-nationalist world wide. Soon they are on the run to save Faiza from those false accusations. Although they tried their best, Faiza gets arrested by the Police. But it was not officially recorded. Amal, Aadarsh and Pothuvaal along with Faiza's grandfather, who was also a freedom fighter together take efforts to find Faiza. Due to mass media effect, the Police had to reveal Faiza's arrest and she produced in the court. In the last minute for the skit, the anti-fascists get the skit members arrested, so that the skit won't take place. To the utter dismay of the anti-fascists, finally the skit is partially conducted by Amal and Aadarsh. The police and the anti-fascists stop them from completing it. At that exact time Faiza reaches the stage and completes the skit.

Cast

as Faiza Sufiya *

as Amal * Siddique as Prof. Satheesh Pothuvaal * Karuna Singh Chauhan as Tulsa *

Sanju Sivram Sanju Sivram is an Indian actor who predominantly appears in Malayalam cinema, who made his debut in 2013 movie Nee Ko Njaa Cha. He is best known for his roles in ''Nee Ko Njaa Cha'' (2013), 1983 (2014), ''Hello Namasthe'' (2016). He made his ...

as Aadarsh *

Dain Davis Dain Davis (born 20 January 1995) often known as DD is an Indian actor, comedian and television host, who works in Malayalam-language films and television shows. He won the talent hunt show ''Komady Circus'' (2016) telecasted by Mazhavil Manorama ...

* Rudra Aura as Rohan * Aurora Adya * Raveena Nair * Balaji Mishra * Himanshu Dhankhar as Vaishnav * Sanju Sanichen *

Nirmal Palazhi Nirmal Palazhi (born in Kozhikode, Kerala) is an Indian actor who has worked predominantly in the Malayalam film industry known for his work on Puthan Panam, Diwanji Moola Grand Prix and Ira. Personal life Nirmal was born and settled in K ...

as Haris * Jeo Baby as Advocate * Sudheesh as Dean

Production

After directing '' Sakhavu'' (2017),

Sidhartha Siva Sidhartha Siva (born 5 May 1985) is an Indian film director, producer, actor, screenwriter and lyricist, who works in Malayalam cinema. Early life His hometown is Kaviyoor in Kerala. He is the son of filmmaker Kaviyoor Sivaprasad. Film career ...

announced ''Varthamanam'' with Parvathy Thiruvothu and Roshan Mathew in leading roles.

Rafeeq Ahmed Rafeeq Ahmed (born 17 December 1961) is a Malayalam poet, lyricist and novelist. He has won the Kerala Sahitya Akademi Award for Poetry and is a five-time winner of the Kerala State Film Award for Best Lyrics. With more than 600 songs in his ...

and Vishal Johnson wrote the lyrics while

Ramesh Narayan Ramesh Narayan (born 3 November 1959) is an Indian classical vocalist, composer and music producer who works predominantly in Malayalam cinema. He belongs to the Mewati gharana of Hindustani classical music. Narayan began his initial traini ...

and

Hesham Abdul Wahab Hesham Abdul Wahab (born 14 October 1990) is an Indian music director, music producer, singer and audio engineer. Best known for his compositions for the soundtrack of the 2022 Malayalam film ''Hridayam'' and the music album ''Qadham Badha'' ( ...

signed to compose the music. Cinematography was handled by Alagappan and editing was done by

Shameer Muhammed Shameer Muhammed is an Indian film editor and producer predominantly working in Malayalam cinema. He was an alumnus of Chethana Media Institute, Thrissur. He worked as a spot editor in several movies and his debut as an independent editor was ...

. The story and screenplay is written by Aryadan Shoukath while background scores are done by

Bijibal Bijibal Maniyil is an Indian music composer and playback singer who works predominantly in Malayalam films, documentaries, short films and television commercials. He has composed for more than 150 feature films, several documentaries and televisi ...

. The filming of ''Varthamanam'' started in March 2020 and the major portions of the film were shot in North India and regions of Mussoorie.

Release and Controversy

The regional body of

Central Board of Film Certification The Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC) is a statutory film-certification body in the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting of the Government of India. It is tasked with "regulating the public exhibition of films under the provision ...

(CBFC) in Kerala has denied the permission of screening to the film without citing for any reason for rejection. Later V. Sandeep Kumar, an official of the CBFC who is also a BJP leader said that "he denied clearance for the movie as the movie's screenwriter and producer is Aryadan Shoukath" - who is a Muslim - and he found the theme of the film was "anti-national". Kerala state film academy chairman and director Kamal demanded the removal of Sandeep Kumar for his controversial remarks. The film received clearance after the revising committee approval. The film had theatrical release on 12 March 2021.

Reception

The film had positive responses from audience and critics. ''The Update'' Rated the film ''3/5'' and stated that "The Writer makes a bold attempt to expose the political and racism issues we had today and he almost succeed in that".

References

{{Reflist 2021 films 2020s Malayalam-language films 2021 drama films Films directed by Sidhartha Siva

External link

Varthamanam at IMDB