Mollywood has dabbled with movies featuring RJs as lead characters. Most of them have mirrored the peppy, fun-loving and articulate radio jockeys we have become all too familiar with from tuning onto our favourite FM stations. 'Meri Awas Suno' is more of a personal journey of an RJ and an attempt to portray how much voice matters in a lingering world seeped in radio waves.
Echoing the title, the movie is a plea to be heard, literally and figuratively. Jayasurya, whose last reel outing was 'Sunny', shows us once again how good an actor he is in handling emotions.
In 'Meri Awas Suno', Jayasurya plays RJ Shankar, a leading talk show host at Club FM 81.3 who connects with his audience using his sensitive approach to life. His life is near perfect – a loving family and a rewarding job, till one day, life takes an unexpected turn.
Though the movie is said to be a remake of Bengali movie 'Konntho', director Prajesh Sen has made all efforts to pepper his personal style to the movie. This shouldn't be surprising as Prajesh, who has now three films to his credit, has had a stint with the All India Radio earlier.
Manju Warrier as Dr Reshmi, a speech therapist, is a delight to watch, as she breezes into people's lives with her unusual philosophies and approach to living. This is evident when she is called for delivering a speech during the Women's Day function at a women's college run by Catholic sisters.
She sets the stage on fire with her words, encouraging girls to step out for tea or a 'thattu dosa' in the middle of the night. She goes on to ask the girls to set the boundaries for their freedom themselves and not be afraid of the night, which is just a cover of the day. This evokes a thunderous applause from the crowd, much to the disappointment of the Sisters.
These women-centric dialogues are used here and there in the movie and the director should be given credit for making an attempt to speak about society's stereotyping of women.
Manju, whose most comeback films have been family-centric, has done justice to her role as a speech therapist. Though her character had more scope, it felt that the director was in a hurry to cut short her role as an afterthought.
Manju's and Jayasurya's first on-screen collaboration gathered all the buzz, but it was Shivada Nair as RJ Shankar's wife, stole the show with their delightful chemistry absorbing the nuance of the reels.
It would have been better if these roles complemented each other. Actors Johny Antony and Sudheer Karamana have also done a decent job in the movie.
Costume designers Saritha Jayasurya, Akshaya Premnath and Sameera Saneesh have woven a marvel.
Award-winning music composer M Jayachandran, lyricist B K Harinarayan and singers Anna Amie and Krishnachandra have done magic with the songs which leave you truly refreshed while Noushad Shereef's cinematography cannot be overlooked at any stage.
Though the movie will uplift your mood with its encouraging tone and beautiful blend of emotion, 'Meri Awaa Suno' should have taken some more time to leave a deeper effect on the audience.