For a more informed view of the film, look at this English language review from Australia. Although definitely a romance, the film does include some fight scenes and dramatic moments – not everything Charlie does has a positive outcome, even if his intentions are good. However, the narrative does focus on some of the more touristy spots in Kerala – which has its big, modern cities just like other leading states. Again, unlike some Bollywood films, Charlie takes place in a recognisable India. She is another Southern actor who is more ‘real’ (i.e. It was good to see Dulquer Salmaan again after OK Kanmani and Parvathy was equally impressive. I can’t comment on the romance (or the numerous sub-plots) without some knowledge of the dialogue, but I enjoyed all the performances.
The song clip below accompanies a montage in which Parvathy’s character begins to enjoy the strange room she has rented. But there are also terrific scenes shot to capture the crowds, especially in the closing festival sequence in which, as the title at the beginning of the film informed us, “no elephants were harmed”. Charlie performs magic tricks and CGI features heavily in some of the music scenes. The film is suffused with ‘magical’ elements. The narrative is also careful to honour the three religions of the state so there are scenes with Christian, Muslim and Hindu festivals. I understand that some of the scenes on the sands were shot in Gujarat. Kerala is certainly in my top 3 most beautiful places in the world and the film spends plenty of time in Kochi’s ‘old town’ and then up in the mountains in Munnar (with the tea plantations). Without the dialogue, there is always the music and action to enjoy, the local ‘colour’ and beautiful landscapes and in this instance the costumes – bohemian and hippie, drawing on the Malabar Coast’s tourist history perhaps. Tessa will then seek out Charlie, not finding him until the end of the narrative, but having learned to love him through the stories that she discovers from the other people whose lives have been affected by Charlie. We see the ‘real’ events featuring ‘Charlie’ (Dulquer Salmaan) as Tessa reads the draft.
It is filled with an amazing array of art objects and clutter and eventually Tessa finds a draft of a graphic novel (pictures only) which seems to tell the story of a magical ‘do gooder’ character. Tessa escapes to Kochi (Cochin) where she finds a flat in an old house. ‘Tessa’ (Pravathy) is a young graphic designer who arrives home for her brother’s engagement party to discover her mother plotting to arrange her daughter’s (i.e. Fortunately, the outline narrative is straightforward. I can only give a limited response since, despite assurances by the distributor, the film was not subtitled at Cineworld in Bradford. That sounds an obvious point to make but the Indian convention of designating films in this way is unusual and not necessarily based on ‘real’ box office figures.
Charlie (Dulquer Salmaan) and Tessa (Parvathy) finally meetĬharlie has been designated a ‘superhit’ by Indian commentators – an indication that its reception by audiences and critics should lead to success after its launch on Christmas Eve in Kerala and January 8th in the UK.
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