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Join UsStar Cast: Anna Ben, Sunny Wayne, Benny P Nayarambalam and ensemble.
Director: Jude Anthany Joseph.
What’s Good: of course Anna Ben who becomes the torch to a conversation that needs our attention.
What’s Bad: The inadequacy at many places including some crucial points.
Loo Break: If you can take off your eyes from Anna, go ahead. But she is in every single frame of the film.
Watch or Not?: You should. The flaws are not criminal that you don’t even give it a chance. If not thoroughly entertaining, it is educational and a conversation starter that we definitely need right now.
Language: Malayalam (with English subtitles)
Available on: Amazon Prime Video
User Rating:
Sara’s tells the story of Sara Vincent (Anna Ben), a girl aspiring to be a filmmaker with a story ready in her hands. But, there is a catch, she is 25 and her parents want to get her married soon. And on top of that Sara never wants to be a mother. In this mix she finds a boy Jeevan (Jeevan), who follows the same thought process, and they fall for each other and get married. But what happens when Sara gets ‘accidentally’ pregnant is the story.
Sara’s Movie Review: Script Analysis
The agency and whom does it belong to, is a conversation eminent for ages. Not to forget, patriarchy ingrained in our DNA has always made us feel that the male gender is superior to the female, and the former can take right decision for the latter. Sara’s written by Akshay Hareesh, is about this single conflict which talks about the agency of a woman on her body.
Here is a girl who doesn’t want children. Technically it is her choice and must be respected. But, families don’t give you that much privacy and choice, isn’t it? A storm is caused when she announces that and, Hareesh is quick to show you how the agency on her body is not just hers, but roughly 10 other people.
Talking about those 10 other people, they also include men. Sara’s is full of men who on the outer surface seem like feminists who support every step women in their life take. But Akshay and director Jude are clever enough to make you see their saviour complex beneath. Take her father for instance; while he is all supportive and cute when he tells her daughter that the decision is ultimately hers, there is also a sense of pride that he gave her the freedom to make that choice, relatable! Or Meera Nair’s Anjali who is a big star and her husband says he controls her as if a robot shows the extent of patriarchy we are marinated in.
The writing in Sara’s never gets too heavy to digest. It is at the end of the day, a slice of life film that is dealing with a subject that is taboo. There are many questions from why does a woman have to justify her decisions? Why can’t the society take it easy and mind their own business? Why is abortion such a moral crime in India? But are all of them answered? Well, 50 percent. The rest of it is busy in its on repetitiveness and inadequacy.
I call it inadequate because not just 1 but many plot points are initiated but never spoken about enough to have a conclusion. Take Sunny Wayne’s Jeevan. He is a man who just like his wife Sara neither like nor want kids. But when she is accidentally pregnant, a change in his heart leads to him wanting to have the child. While it is a legit thought and dynamic, we are never taken into his mind, his catharsis as to what did he go through to have an entirely different opinion now.
Similarly, digs are taken at the Malayalam cinema culture on the behind the scenes, but never spoken enough to make that a strong debate.
Sara’s Movie Review: Star Performance
Anna Ben is Anna Ben, and how can one even expect her to not give her best at this point. She yet again camouflages in the surrounding and becomes a part of the world she is thrown into. She is not ‘a shouting at the top of her voice’ girl about the decision she has taken. Rather her rebellion is personal and only bursts when pressurised.
Sunny Wayne adds the needed charm in Sara’s and becomes Jeevan who sees a transformation. While the script fails to give him a detailed arc, the actor manages to grab attention. Screenwriter Benny P Nayarambalam who plays Sara’s father, is Anna Ben’s real father. He does the job just right.
Sara’s Movie Review: Direction, Music
Director Jude Anthany Joseph knows he is making a film that needs to educate and entertain subtly while leaving a smile on his viewer’s face. He treats Sara’s similarly. Never does he tap the darkness in a way that it reflects in the visuals. Even when producers try to do wrong with Sara his vision stays simple and not over the top.
But the same thing also turns out to be a con when the repetitiveness takes over. While the journey to the conflict takes most of the time, the conflict once introduced starts running in full speed. More emphasis on the latter part would have done wonders to the script. Music supports the film nicely and is a soothing album to tune into.
Sara’s Movie Review: The Last Word
You cannot completely ignore Sara’s at all. It has Anna Ben, there has to be many things good for her to say yes to a film, and there are. Watch the movie on Amazon Prime Video and tell me what you think about it.
Two and a half stars!
Nehha Pendse fans, check out last week’s release June’s movie review, click here
Sara’s Trailer
Sara’s releases on 06th July, 2021.
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