Despite the fact that “19(1)(a)” is a small independent movie about the political awakening of a young girl in a small town in Kerala, it still managed to land Vijay Sethupathi and Nithya Menenin in two of the key roles of a film that has both many merits and issues.
19(1)(a) is screening at Vesoul International Film Festival of Asian Cinema
Penkutty, a young girl running a copy shop in the stead of her depressed father, finds herself in a situation with much more than she can handle, when a young writer, who later is proven to be Gauri Shankar, an author who frequently writes texts against the government, stumble upon her shop by chance. He is there to leave the manuscript of his novel in order to make copies of it, and he promises to be back in the shop before the closing time. Actually, though, he never returns, and Penkutty soon finds out that he was murdered because of that manuscript. With a rather significant choice in her hands, the young woman needs to decide what she wants to do with the text.
Let us start with the positives of the movie. For starters, both the protagonists fill their screen with their charisma, with Vijay Sethupathi as Gauri being the mysterious, constantly thinking individual and Nithya Menenin highlighting her innocent beauty and her inner struggle quite convincingly. Furthermore, the political connotations of the story, and particularly how political activism becomes part of the everyday life of a girl who did not concern herself with issues like that, is also well presented. Penkutty's relationship with her father, which is mostly presented through his meaningful looks when somebody mentions their own daughter's future (usually involving marriage) is another tick in the pros column. Furthermore, it allows VS to talk about the concept of arranged marriage in India, which, in this case, is presented in subtle, but also quite pointed fashion.
Regarding the negatives. For starters, the extensive and repetitive use of music does become annoying after a fashion, particularly since it includes an evident effort for forced sentimentalism. Furthermore, after a point, the movie begins to lag significantly, with the many additional scenes of the last part becoming equally annoying. In that regard, the editing by Manoj does not work particularly well, also because the pacing does become a bit weird eventually, especially in the way the different elements here are placed within the narrative. Manesh Madhavan's cinematography on the other hand does work well in terms of framing although the coloring frequently points towards a TV drama actually.
As such, it is easy to say that “19(1)(a)” is a mixed bag of a film, which leans significantly on the charisma of its protagonists and a story that is interesting, but could have definitely been handled in much better fashion.
