'Super Sharanya', the second movie by director Girish AD after 'Thanneer Mathan Dinangal', had created much buzz in campuses prior to its theatrical release, thanks to the effective promotions and the already hit song 'Ashubha Mangalakaari'.
So, it was no wonder that the first day's first show was houseful in theatres and that too with the majority of the crowd from colleges. What was notable was that the crowd mostly this time were college-going girls.
Indeed, the trailer of the film had shown a story focusing on a college women's hostel. Usually, Malayalam cinema tells the story from the men's hostel. This perhaps could be the reason why girls turned up in large numbers on the first day.
While the basic plot is a campus love story of Sharanya (Anaswara Rajan), it also captures well the bonding between the four roommates, friendship, humour and everything else that is needed for a campus movie. Mamitha Baiju, Devika Gopal Nair and Rosna Joshi. play her roommates. While Anaswara has perfected her character as a village girl from Palakkad coming to a college in Thrissur, Mamitha Baiju as Sona makes the movie a fun watch. Sona is a Kochi girl, who is the self-proclaimed guardian of Sharanya. She even outshines Sharanya's character in some scenes.
It is the way Girish has perfectly defined each character in the film that makes the movie interesting to watch. Each character has its own flaws reminding nobody is perfect.
In the first year of her engineering, almost everyone wants to be the lover and protector of naive Sharanya.
Sharanya is someone who is not confident about herself and somehow manages to mess up things. Even learning a dance step or throwing a banana peel out of the window, which her friends do easily, are extremely difficult for Sharanya.
The story is all about how Sharanya evolves through her college experiences and finds love amid the chaos.
Among the pesky characters, Sharanya has to deal with in college are professor Arun (Vineeth Vishwa) who wants to marry her, a control-freak senior who has also decided to make her the life partner, classmate Sangeeth (Naslen K. Gafoor) who is constantly trying to woo her. The list is never-ending, but these three have done exceptionally well in humorously portraying how such characters can make life hell for women.
Arjun Ashok as Deepu plays the love interest of Sharanya, and he is not from the same college. In fact, he is not at all like the studious Sharanya and has a patchy past. They meet during a trip to Kochi and slowly connect and gel.
Deepu's friend Varun (Varun Dhara) and his brother-in-law Abhilash (Sajin Cherukayil) also showcase notable performances.
The film is not just about the women though, there are scenes to thrill the audience craving for some macho actions. There are plenty of guest appearances, greeted by loud and cheering crowds in the theatre.
Music by Justin Varghese and cinematography by Sajith Purushan make the movie a pleasant watch.
Each character in 'Super Sharanya' leaves a mark and the story flows without drag for the entire two hours and forty minutes. This one is definitely a major improvement over 'Thanneer Mathan Dinangal.'