Bougainvillea review: This Amal Neerad film belongs to Jyothirmayi

When a movie begins with an accident – a car tumbling in slow motion, and the puzzled faces of the occupants frozen midair – it sets, with least effort, the tone of what’s to come. This is not going to be a movie you will sit back and watch without gripping your armrest or shuddering involuntarily. Amal Neerad, in his typical ways, lets the tension on the screen pass on to your body, with the very opening of his new film Bougainvillea. You are given two of your main characters (Kunchacko Boban and Jyothirmayi), the promise of a thriller, and the turning point of a very suspenseful script, all in those few minutes. 

The promise is kept, the thriller thrills, the suspense confuses, and the characters are every one of them striking. But the last half of the film, where the secrets are out and the actions follow, does not hold the charm of the first; the back story, not a convincing enough ground for all the pieces to fall. 

After that affecting intro – made more enchanting by the music of Sushin Syam – a song follows, almost as a mood killer. In trying to introduce Reethu – a character made unforgettable by Jyothirmayi – the song looks out of place, too early for you to sympathise with the floating mind of a woman. The accident had given her retrograde amnesia and she had to be told every now and then what had just happened or whom she’d just met. Her gray curls, loose dresses and sweaters make Jyothirmayi seem like a character out of an Enid Blyton novel but the script makes allowances for everything about her. She forgets to dress up, to grow her hair long, to take an eyeliner to her face. Jyothirmayi brings you closer to Reethu with every passing moment, making her someone you’d like to sit with.

Character setting happens along with introductions. Kunchacko Boban, playing Dr Royce, is shown not just as a caring husband, soothing his ill wife, but also as a friendly doctor who cheers everyone up. Royce is the only constant in Reethu’s muddled world, along with two children she adores, and the paintings of bougainvillea she can’t stop creating. Srindaa and Sharafudheen, playing a couple who serve as domestic worker and driver to Reethu, fill the silences when husband leaves and wife is alone. 

Mystery is weaved into every passing scene, and soon enough, a police case is brought in front of the woman with the failing memory. Fahadh Faasil’s few scenes as a no-nonsense police officer are expectedly remarkable, the actor as always a marvel to watch. But the film belongs to Jyothirmayi and Kunchacko Boban, especially her. Both of them, with their performances, can let the story go any which way. Who is real here, who is not, which of these characters are not what they seem to be, are questions that bug you from early on, for you know, you can guess, that everything is not what it appears to be. Amal’s script, written with and based on a novel by Lajo Jose, is tight and neatly packed in the first half. 

The second half, even with all the answers you have been waiting for, is at times underwhelming, other times, unexpectedly gory. 

There is a pleasing takeaway though, that if you like, you can connect to the title of the film. Bougainvillea is the name of a flowering plant belonging to the ‘four o clock family’-- flowers that bloom after 4 in the evening. In the film is a woman actor, unseen in cinema for years, making a mighty strong comeback, showing naysayers that it is a mere myth, what they say about age becoming a barrier for women in cinema.

Disclaimer: This review was not paid for or commissioned by anyone associated with the film. Neither TNM nor any of its reviewers have any sort of business relationship with the producers or any other members of its cast and crew.