Idhayam Murali opens warm, and Atharvaa needs the win

Idhayam Murali reached theatres on July 10, and the early word is the kind Atharvaa has been waiting a while to hear. The coming-of-age romance, the directorial debut of producer Aakash Baskaran, opened to warm reviews and warmer word of mouth from the first shows, most of it landing on the same notes: simple, nostalgic, sincere, a feel-good film that does not try to be more than it is.

The reviews agree on where its strength lies. The first half is the draw, a run through 90s youth that moves from a schoolboy crush on a teacher to teenage romance to easy friendship, carried by Atharvaa as Idhaya, a young man who cannot get the words of a confession out. The trailer had promised that quiet, one-sided ache, and the film builds a whole coming-of-age story around it, with a friends’ gang and a pre-interval stretch set to a classic yesteryear song that has been singled out as a highlight. The second half turns more emotional as Idhaya’s adult life and an engagement complicate his unresolved feelings, and while the pace dips in places, the sentiment is reported to land before a playful, satisfying finish. One trade notice put it at 3.5 out of 5.

Atharvaa draws some of his most relatable notices in a while, and the supporting names do real work: Fahadh Faasil turns up in an extended guest role that reviews call a crowd-pleaser, his pre-climax song placement the loudest moment in the hall, with Natty grounding the emotional beats as Idhaya’s uncle and Preity Mukhundhan and Kayadu Lohar registering opposite the lead. On the craft side, Thaman’s songs and score and the cinematography by Manoj Paramahamsa and Sai are the most-praised elements, giving a small story a polished, colourful sheen.

The reaction on X ran along the same lines, with early viewers landing on the same feel-good verdict and flagging the surprise cameos and the back half as the film’s stronger stretch.

The title carries its own weight. Idhayam Murali reads as a tribute to Atharvaa’s late father, the actor Murali, folding his name into Idhayam, the beloved one-sided-love classic, and a good part of the film’s early affection is tied to that gesture. For Atharvaa himself, coming off a lean stretch of results, a warmly received film named for his father is as much a personal marker as a commercial one.

That it arrived at all was not a given. The makers stayed almost entirely away from the usual promotional circuit, giving a handful of interviews and skipping the big events, and the release had looked uncertain for weeks. The production, under Dawn Pictures, has been shadowed by a court case from Parasakthi director Sudha Kongara over unpaid dues, and the film reached screens through Red Giant Movies with far less noise than a wide Friday release usually makes. The muted rollout makes the positive open more striking, not less: this is word of mouth doing the work publicity did not.

Atharvaa, whose recent slate ran through the thriller DNA, needed exactly this kind of reception, and he has it. With no promotional muscle behind it, the opening weekend now rests entirely on the word of mouth the film is generating on its own, which is the one thing going right for it.