Vineeth Sreenivasan, from the wealth of his experience, appears to be acutely aware of the barbs that would be coming his way after a film’s release. In Varshangalkku Shesham, his sixth directorial, he launches a preemptive strike at such barbs by indulging in some uncharacteristic self-mockery. But then, let that not fuel expectations of Vineeth charting a fresh path. Once all the jibes directed at his own self are done, he slides back to his nostalgic, feel-good comfort zone, located somewhere in Chennai.
Much of the story revolves around the friendship between Venu (Dhyan Sreenivasan), an aspiring screenwriter and filmmaker, and Murali (Pranav Mohanlal), a musician. As was the trend back in the 1970s, they head to Madras with dreams of making it big in cinema. Fortune wavers, showering them fame and failure in equal measure.
Vineeth attempts to tell the tale of outsiders finding their feet in a cut-throat industry, although there’s a bit of irony, as the actors who are playing them are anything but outsiders. The emotional core of Varshangalkku Shesham is written around the changing shades of the relationship between these two men and the evolution of the film industry in the intervening years, but somehow it is not a deeply affecting tale especially because of the weakly-written conflicts.
