Ever since Bethlehem Kudumba Unit (BKU) released in theatres, I had seen a wave of social media posts about Girish AD movies. Now, after the release of the superhit movie on OTT, there is a renewed wave of similar posts. What I noticed is that most of the posts are on either extreme – either shaming BKU and its making and Girish AD movies in general for being hyped and nothing to brag about or making his movies sound among the best of the generation. I found both extremes to be stretched out when it comes to Girish AD movies. Because his movies come somewhere in the middle.
In very simple terms, I have found Girish AD movies, except for the slightly dull I am Kathalan, to be entertaining. And that is saying something. Because in a world where we are constantly dealing with all that real life has to throw at us, being genuinely entertained for a couple of hours, laughing about stupid jokes, and enjoying a movie as just a fun watch without having to invest too much into it, in terms of emotions or intelligence, is not something small.
Girish AD pulls this off mostly by using his supporting characters very well. In Thanneermathan Dinangal, it was Naslen who took the cake. In Super Sharanya, it was the ensemble support cast including Mamitha, Naslen, and Vineeth Vasudevan who stood out for their quirkiness. In Premalu, it was most definitely Sangeeth and Shyam Mohan who made it more fun. And in BKU, it was the stand-alone and combo scenes of Sangeeth, Roshan, and Suresh Krishna that made me laugh. Of course, a lot of the jokes are “references.” But they still pull it off without making the references over-the-top or cringe. And almost every supporting character does a decent job in the acting department, which is a win in itself for any movie. I say this because I have had a tough job digesting even blockbusters like the Drishyam franchise, and most of the Jeethu Joseph movies, for that matter, because the side characters stick out like a sore thumb. In contrast, the whole universe of Girish AD movies has enjoyable side characters who we fall in love with and laugh with.
However, why I don’t side with the ones who say that Girish AD movies are absolutely great is because there is pretty much nothing great about the main plotline in any of his movies. Of course, a simple love story is something that makes me swoon and I don’t need anything dramatically hyper to call a movie great. But his plotlines are a little too oversimplified and cliched to be called great in any sense. And the main characters are almost never the ones who you feel like rooting for.
In Thanneermathan Dinangal, the only portions where I cringed were the ones where Mathew kept trying hard (I could be biased here because I personally am not a fan of his) to make an impact despite the plotline of an innocent high school love story and his conflicts with the antagonist. In Super Sharanya, the only part that didn’t click for me was the love story between the main leads (again, not a fan of Arjun Ashokan at all, which could have played a part) solely because there was nothing endearing or heartwarming about their love story, which was marred even further by the passive aggressive man-child behaviour of the hero, so much so that when she went back to him, just like Mamitha’s character, I was wondering “Why?” The very same behaviour of the hero was what turned me off about Premalu, which otherwise was a very enjoyable movie. I mean, it was such a cliche “red flag romanticized” move to make the normally sweet hero get all passive aggressive about the heroine not reciprocating his feelings and treat her like she committed a crime by saying no to him, all for the otherwise sensible heroine to lose her sleep over this red flag behaviour and run after the guy to proclaim her love for him (what love???). And while watching BKU and thoroughly enjoying the movie as a fun watch, I don’t remember ever going “Aww” over the love story of the leads (both of whom did a good job with their roles, to be fair), feeling anything about the emotional breakup scene, wanting to see them together again, or feeling anything other than “meh” in the climax where the leads reunite.
In short, to those who say Girish AD movies are really bad – not really, they are movies that can genuinely entertain and make you laugh for a couple of hours, which in itself makes a movie “not bad.” To those who are putting Girish AD and his movies on a pedestal because of the box office numbers of his last two outings – dial down the hype perhaps, and accept that they are easy watches and nothing extraordinary. And to Girish AD himself – keep up the great job with your supporting characters; in your next one, perhaps do more justice to your main characters and the core plotline so that we have a duo that stands the test of time and does not fade away after the initial fad dies down.
Also published on Medium.
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