Have you been a child who was found to be quite useless, aimless and unworthy by your Dad?

Have you been someone whose parents wanted to impose their ambitions upon and you never lived up to them?

Vaazha is a story of a bunch of such boys who want to live their life the way they want to but never manage to live up to the image their parents have cast about them.

The movie starts on a very fun filled note as you live the lives of 3 friends, growing up into a group of 5, wandering aimlessly through their adolescence, without a clue of their future.

The first half is extremely lively without ticklish situations that will keep you giggling while at the same time relating to the boys and their antics.

And then the movie suddenly takes a turn as Anand Menen dives deeper into the relationships that the boys share with their respective Dads and amongst themselves too.

The story becomes poignant and the giggles get stiffled changing into a wry grin from time to time.

Anand Menen has beautifully portrayed the diverse relationships taking into consideration the new age society.

The cast is fantastic and so are the performances.

Siju Sunny, Joemon Jyothir, Amit Mohan, Safwan, Anuraj OB and Anshid, all of them deserve a standing ovation for some of the most natural performances I have seen.

Anand Menen had every opportunity to make the comic scenes slapstick but he avoided the temptation and kept them humorous without going over the top.

The support cast was terrific and they managed to rope in Basil Joseph in an interesting cameo.

The movie doesn’t have a single dull moment and will keep you engrossed as the Director ensures that your emotions are toyed with and taken for a ride through the ups and downs of the lives of the characters.

The movie is very “guy centric”. There are a few female characters but they are simply cogs in the wheel, though the character of Meenakshi Unnikrishnan was well developed and she carried it off well too.

If you are in for some clean drama, you shouldn’t miss this.

The movie is originally in Malayalam and I would recommend you watch it in its original language with subtitles, though it is available in multiple other languages, including Hindi.

#DaMoRating: 8/10

Disclaimer: One point has been cut for keeping the movie male oriented, the Moms hardly have a say. And yeah new movies don’t get more than 8 unless they are exceptionally good…because DaMoRating has a reputation to keep….shari???