Movie Review - Aalayam

Aalayam here in this film is a huge home run by an old man played by director KB Tilak. The family has countless members, sons, grandsons, great grandsons, servants and their children and all of them are one happy lot. The old man’s granddaughter falls in love with one of their employees and the young man is humiliated and kicked out of the house. The couple elope and never return. After decades Sivaji, a great grandson takes the onus on himself to bring his aunt and her family back for the grandfather’s 100^th birthday celebration and he succeeds. Just when everything seems to be going well, Sivaji’s uncle is still seething with vindictiveness and wants to take revenge for the insult he endured years ago. Whether he succeeds in his mission or not to break the strong bond amongst the family members forms the crux of the film.

The hero and heroine form a part of the story and have hardly anything to do. At times it’s hard to comprehend whether this drama has been made for the small tube or the big screen. The plus point of the film is that it celebrates the concept of joint family which has become a rarity but the narrative is particularly weak. Brahmanandam keeps the mild jokes flowing at a steady pace. Sivaji and Honeyrose are okay but they hardly act as catalyst to the story and are used for a couple of duets. The ending is tame as the plot to disintegrate and drive away the family is given away pre-interval. Since the general outline is already clear, the film doesn’t move you. There are no emotional highs or lows that are a characteristic of Muthyala Subbaiah’s films. A routine family drama that lacks resonance