REPERCUSSIONS OF A KISS/SHARP REPRESENTATION OF OUR TIME

Ishq, as the title claims is not a love story of Sachi and Vasudha. It is a dissection of the society that you and I currently live in. It is a sharp representation of chauvinism in the average malayali man, the misogyny that has sadly, become the norm in our day to day lives. The age of heroes in Malayalam cinema is certainly counting it's last days, and Ishq is nothing but a fine example of the same.

Ishq strips the malayali viewer bare as it feeds us pills that turn out hard to swallow. It unequivocally makes us confront our double standards when it comes to morals and how eroding and abusive the sense of justice can be in the wrong hands. There are no knights and damsels in Ishq. There are only men and women. Men who are good to women, relatively. And then the same men who turn out to be troublesome. No matter what, it is the woman who bears the brunt. And Ishq conveys this accurately. And that is where the script scores for me, personally. The tension that steadily builds in the first half, compliments the dread that grows inside you in the second half, as you watch Sachi slowly lose the plot, unknowingly becoming yet another Alvin in the process. Ishq is indeed a gem of a movie for the message it conveys, and the manner it does. Never for once turning preachy at any point, whatsoever. It is indeed among the best screenplays of this year, up there with Kumbalangi Nights for me.

P. S. A: You are on the wrong side, if you consider Sachi (Shane Nigam, the kid is certainly going places) the hero of this story, and Alvin (Shine Tom Chacko, truly a revelation) the villain. Clearly the message has gone over your head, if you're among the ones that clap towards the end, as Sachi walks out of Alvin's house with a sense of fulfillment and content.

Also, a kiss is no joke, period.