Debutant Eugien Jos Chirammel's Soothravakyam begins with an idea that might have worked in better hands. It tells the story of Christo Xavier (Shine Tom Chacko), a police officer in a sleepy small town who spends his free time teaching maths to 11th graders. The film opens in a classroom, where Nimisha (Vincy Aloshious), a frustrated mathematics teacher, finds most of her seats empty. Her students are off attending Christo’s free lessons held in the top hall of the local police station. She complains to the principal, and together they plead with Christo to stop undermining her. He responds with a polite warning to the children, which has no real impact. It is the first hint of the film’s biggest problem. From the outset, nothing quite fits together. We never learn why the children are so desperate to flock to Christo’s classes, nor how he has the time to be both a responsible inspector and an enthusiastic tutor during school hours. The film never bothers to explain. Instead, it hurls a jumble of loosely connected scenes at the viewer, hoping something sticks. One moment we are watching police procedural vignettes, then we are back in the classroom, then we drift into domestic scenes with the students and their families. None of these strands builds any tension or depth.
Director: Eugien Jos Chirammel
Cast: Shine Tom Chacko, Vincy Aloshious, Deepak Parambol
The main conflict arises when Arya, a student of both Nimisha and Christo, is beaten by her much older brother Vivek (Deepak Parambol). Vivek resents Arya because she was born when he was already in college, and he spent years enduring mockery from his peers. This resentment has turned into regular violence. When he discovers Arya getting close to Akhil, another student, he lashes out again. Christo, ever the upright officer, responds by slapping Vivek in the police station. That’s about as much character development as we get. For a story that supposedly revolves around Christo, the film never shows us who he really is. What drives him? Why does he care so much about these children? The film doesn’t seem to know or care. Shine tries to play him with quiet dignity, but the script offers him so little that even his best efforts fall flat. Vincy, as Nimisha, fares no better. Early on, her character seems poised to be important. Instead, she fades into the background, reappearing only to complain or comfort Arya.
About halfway through, the film suddenly tries to shift into darker territory, as a moment of impulsive aggression among one of the younger characters sets off a chain of events with serious consequences. This could have been the point where the story found its focus, exploring guilt and responsibility with real weight. Instead, these developments are skimmed over in a handful of shallow scenes that never explore the emotional fallout with any seriousness. The investigation that follows has all the ingredients of a tense procedural but drifts along without urgency or clarity. Rather than deepening the dilemma, it meanders into side plots that feel hastily included and never earn their place in the story. As if unsure what it wants to say, the film even contains a clumsy episode about teenage drug abuse, just to give Christo another opportunity to deliver a lecture. These attempts at cautionary lessons feel hollow and never connect to the broader narrative in any meaningful way.
The one area where Soothravakyam shows some consistency is in its visual presentation. The town is captured with a quiet beauty that occasionally hints at a more thoughtful film. By the time it ends, it's hard to tell what the film was trying to achieve. Is the film meant to be a crime drama, a cautionary tale, or a character study? It never makes up its mind. The result is a tedious, muddled slog that squanders every bit of potential it had even at a running time of under two hours.