Vala Movie Review: Mishandled writing sinks an interesting premise

Vala: The Story of a Bangle begins with an intriguing promise. A mythical prologue introduces us to an Arabian ornament passed down across centuries, raising curiosity about how such a relic might turn up in contemporary Kerala. Director Muhashin, aided by Harshad’s script, spends the first hour setting up this mystery with reasonable efficiency.

Director: Muhashin

Cast: Lukman Avaran, Dhyan Sreenivasan, Sheethal Joseph, Raveena Ravi, Vijayaraghavan, Shanthi Krishna

Vishalakshi (Sheethal Joseph), who has left behind her conservative family to marry Bhanuprakash (Lukman Avaran), discovers she has picked up the wrong heirloom box, filled with old love letters, and not ornaments. This minor mix-up could have worked as a neat character beat, but it is soon forgotten. Elsewhere, Purushothaman (Dhyan Sreenivasan) struggles on his wedding night to remove a heavy antique bangle from the wrist of his bride, Sarala (Raveena Ravi). It cannot be taken off, and Sarala claims it has always been that way, insisting it was given to her by her grandmother on her deathbed.

Later, Vishalakshi spots Sarala at an Aadhaar office and innocently asks about the bangle, only to be insulted for not wearing gold herself. This petty encounter fuels Vishalakshi’s sudden obsession with owning the same kind of ornament, leading Bhanuprakash into a mission to at least photograph it. He ropes in a colleague, notices unusual engravings on the piece, and begins to suspect there is more to the ornament than Sarala’s story suggests. Meanwhile, Purushothaman, sensing an opportunity, explores ways to profit from the bangle. 

For a while, the film sustains its curiosity. Unfortunately, the second half collapses under the weight of its ambitions. What begins as a mystery about the origin of a piece of jewellery soon unravels into unconvincing detours. The film slows to a crawl, the story becomes a muddle, and the suspense around the bangle turns from intriguing to irritating.

A recurring issue with Harshad’s writing surfaces once again. Just as in Mammootty's Puzhu, where a late detour diluted the focus of the entire film, Vala abandons its central mystery to dive headlong into a familiar trope of minority characters being unreasonably targeted. While this is a powerful theme when organically woven in, here it feels imposed, as though the script has been reverse-engineered to fit an agenda. A riot even appears without context so randomly. These diversions derail the mystery and drain away any chance the film had of being a sharper, quirkier exploration of greed and obsession.

The female characters suffer most from this lack of focus. Despite the entire story revolving around a piece of women’s jewellery, Sarala and Vishalakshi are written with the depth of cardboard cut-outs. Sarala is defined only by deception, while Vishalakshi is reduced to a whiny spouse whose sole function is to nag her husband about a bangle. The script never asks why a seemingly educated woman like Vishalakshi, despite her conservative roots, does not simply work to buy what she wants, instead portraying her as helplessly dependent on her husband. For a film about a bangle, the gender writing is remarkably tone-deaf.

The actors do what they can, but they are trapped in weak roles. Raveena Ravi and Sheethal Joseph give committed performances, but the poor characterisation overshadows them. Vijayaraghavan and Shanthi Krishna bring their usual gravitas, though the film never makes their arcs compelling enough to root for. Lukman Avaran as Bhanuprakash delivers his usual, steady performance, though nothing particularly memorable. Dhyan Sreenivasan, trumpeted as playing a villain for the first time, turns in a performance so similar to his usual work that you could miss the supposed transformation.

Composer Govind Vasantha, debuting as an actor, is unintentionally comic in a role meant to menace. Most baffling is the waste of Arjun Radhakrishnan in a role so inconsequential. If there is one impressive saving grace, it lies in the film’s technical craft. The visuals are neat and Govind Vasantha’s background score works far better than his acting.

Muhashin’s debut Kadina Kadoramee Andakadaham (also written by Harshad) showed promise and restraint. Vala shows neither. What could have been a tightly crafted, slightly eccentric mystery comedy about greed and a legendary bangle instead drags itself into a bloated sermon, exhausting to sit through and all too easy to forget.