BEN Malayalam Movie Review

From a relevance perspective, the content discussed in Vipin Atley's "BEN" has very high importance in modern day. The film can definitely act as an eye opener to parents who are almost close to the characters discussed in Ben.
With a neat execution and presentation, the film is a worthy watch and deserves appreciation for Atley who makes a return this time as writer cum director after Homely Meals in which he had a different role to play as an actor apart from writing the screenplay.
The story revolves around a joint family located at Mulavukad, which is twenty five kilometres from Ernakulam boat Jetty. So we have our title protagonist, Ben who is a young boy not much interested in studies. His mother who was not able to study in a good institution wants her boy to go to the best of schools in the City that force the family to relocate to the City.
This doesn't go well with the child as he couldn't come to terms with the city school life that makes him a disturbed character and from here the film takes us to his problems thereafter.
You cannot call "BEN" a children's film. Well it is only partially. Till the halfway mark, there are lighter moments with little humour that suit the young as well as the matured ones. From post-intermission, the film focus on the main content which is somewhat dark.
All the characters have an innocent makeover in them especially since the story unfold in a remote village. Vipin Atley's direction is on the right track that makes the film a watchable one for the most part. He is showing promise here and his future looks good from here on.
One thing that I could not digest is the heavy and matured dialogues coming from the three kids and this happens in the first half which was a bit too much. Also some amount of melodrama towards the end also is a small negativity in an otherwise good film. But these were tolerable and doesn't do any harm for the film's overall likeable aspect.
Gaurav Menon appearing in the title role was a good casting and he puts up a matured performance in the shoe of a child. Apart from Ben, there is another child character named Chaami and he was also impressive and made us laugh as and when he appear.
Suraj Venjaramudu as Ben's father and Anjali Aneesh Upasana as the boy's mother were notable with their acting along with Rajesh Sharma, Anwar Shereef and Kalabhavan Haneef. Good cinematography, edits and BGM from the people who handled these technical sides.
A watchable film with a good message and strong performance, "BEN" directed by Vipin Atley is a sincere attempt with its heart at the right place that will touch you. But with little marketing and promotion happening for the film, it will be difficult to make a strong impact at the all important box office unless word of mouth and promotions in the coming days help out. My rating is three and a half out of five.
Rating - 3.5 / 5