Simply Serene Sundari

Simply serene Sundari: My quick take on the new Malayalam movie “Sundari Gardens”

One should commend the efforts of Sony Live as they are releasing new South Indian movies (mainly Malayalam movies) on its OTT platform, plus they also make it available in various languages. Sundari Gardens is one such release (I watched it in the Kannada language), I should say that these Malayalam moviemakers have hit the bull's eye once again. Sundari Gardens is simply awesome and refreshing, especially after watching Rockys, Ronas, komarams, and Pushpa, it is nice to watch a romantic movie set in the beautiful serene landscape of Kerala. You will be transported back to Basuchatterjees ’rajanigandha’ days.

The plot hovers around a happy-go-lucky character of Sundari Mathews played very well by Aparna Balmurali. This mid-30s lady is working in a school as a librarian, where a new teacher played by Neeraj Madhav joins, and then ‘कुछ कुछ होता है’ happens and this beautiful rom-com takes off.

Hats off to the writer, despite including issues of divorce, marital abuse, child abuse, teenage pregnancy, sibling rivalry, love triangle issues, and cancer survivors, he did not allow the story/ screenplay and the character to become very melodramatic or filmy. Secondly, the lush green setting of the plot is simply breathtaking, I think after Piraavi, the lush green western ghats are so beautifully captured that you will fall in love with “God's own country”. The third reason for watching this movie will be its melodious music, all the music tracks are simply wow (good thing is that in dubbing the movie they have retained the songs in Malayalam)

The serene plot setting, lovely characters, melodious songs, and sublime performances by all the actors will make this movie a must-watch. Malayali movie makers are known to shoot movies with actors wearing no make-up, here Aparna Balmurali does the same, plus her oversized body was so un’heroine’ like stuff yet she carries it off so well - Take a bow Aparna

Overall, though the movie may drag a bit at times, the beautiful location and flawless performance of the actors will keep you

interested.

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