Ullasam movie review: Once the novelty of Shane Nigam’s lively act wears off, this romcom loses all fizz

2.5/5

Story: Harry and Nima meet during a train journey from Coonoor to Mettupalayam. Without revealing much about their past or themselves, the duo vow to enjoy their limited time together, presenting each with memories to cherish. The two meet again in Kochi after little over a year in different circumstances. Will they rekindle what they shared during their journey or once again go separate ways?

Review: One of the selling points of debutant director Jeevan Jojo’s Ullasam that its makers had pitched was that the audience would get to see Shane Nigam in a role filled with joie-de-vivre, a total contrast from his previous films. And they deliver as promised with Shane giving it his all as the vibrant youngster Harry Menon. But the problem is that once this novelty act wears out, the film is left with a script that is neither interesting enough to hold the audience’s interest or has memorable moments that are staples of feel-good movies.

The first half of the movie revolves around two strangers – Harry and Nima (Pavithra Lakshmi) – who meet each other in a train journey from Coonoor to Mettupalayam, but soon disembarks and have to make their way to the destination through the forest. The hurdles along the way though appear as mere excuses from the makers’ part to include a few song sequences and cliched attempts at building chemistry between the lead pair. Some of these such as the romantic pair looking at the sky on a starry night are so done to death that the audience knows what’s coming next. The positive here though is that Shane does try to make these appear funny and it works because it’s the first time you are seeing that side of the actor.

The latter half though is where the makers lose the plot. Once the duo meets again, the movie progresses as expected. Both the characters lack the depth, but considering it’s a feel-good film, this can be forgiven. However, following the same template as a lot of similar movies of the genre doesn’t do it any favours, even with the excuse that the movie had been completed two years ago. Moreover, the movie soon devolves into a preachy drama at a stage where the two characters talk about having roots instead of living a free life and these pose for some cringe-worthy dialogues.

To top it all, the movie also has actors such as Aju Varghese, Geethi Sangeetha, Basil Joseph and Deepak Parambol in roles that fail to do justice to their caliber. The movie could have also been cut down by a good 20 minutes and would have managed to be a timepass.

Verdict: Once the novelty of Shane Nigam’s lively act wears off, Ullasam loses all fizz and becomes a stretched, mundane mess.