Sunny Review - An emotionally charged survival drama about hope and forgiveness.

 

Sunny is the latest film helmed by Ranjith Sankar with Jayasurya in the lead role, a film unlike their six previous outings. The duo has been working as artistic collaborators for a long time with numerous credible titles under their belts with the occasional misfires. There are various staples of their filmography like the unbelievably optimistic protagonists, often times on-your-face social commentary and harmless ted talk inspired banter meant to drive home the point of the respective underdog narratives. However, their first project together after almost a three-year gap stands on its own,  in their body of work, oddly due to its toned-down sensibilities and a sensitised view of the pandemic from a single character’s vantage point.

Sunny is structured like a survival drama following the likes of classics of the genre like Cast Away, 127 Hours and Trapped but somehow juxtaposes the conceit of an external fight for survival with a man’s attempts at tackling his inner demons and past mistakes. The film is nuanced in its exploration of mental health stereotypes associated with our cinema and tries to present the complexity of our lives choices in determining our state of mind and peace.  Sometimes it is ourselves and our mistakes that we need saving from and not necessarily anything external!

The film is a single location drama dealing with the psychological impacts of the covid induced lockdown in our lives. Sunny (Jayasurya) is seen returning from the gulf one fine day visibly for good, as we are informed by the opening scene in a cab. The driver tries to strike up a conversation with Sunny but is greeted with short acknowledgments in the form of occasional sighs and long pauses. We feel a sense of void in the silences that fill his space couple with the strange act of him burning his duplicate passport on the way, suggesting clearly that all is not well for this shabbily bearded, rugged man behind the “mask”.

We learn that Sunny is going to be spending his days of quarantine in a five-star hotel – even to the cab driver’s astonishment! Sunny seems to be relieved finally after checking in, spending most of his first day of isolation boozing and sleeping around. Ranjith Sankar builds up the world of the character through passing calls made to his friend (voiced by Aju Varghese) who himself is going through a tough time at work with frequent layoffs on the rise, a detail that does nothing substantial here but still offers some life to the interactions. The film makes use of the monotonous interiors of the location to underline the headspace of Sunny, who is caught at possibly the worst time of his life by far. The stranded room serves as a stand in for his worst nightmare as he starts hallucinating with no one to turn to but to his own self for counsel.

Sunny is going through a divorce with his pregnant wife – the reason for which is reveled later on. The non-availability of alcohol in isolations triggers a series of events that propel Sunny’s torturous stay forward.  The director does something smart here by bringing in Vijayaraghavan to dub his voice for a police officer who frequently checks upon Sunny to see if he is showing up any symptoms during the stay.  We instantly feel the warmth in their interactions yet the cop cuts off abruptly from time to time in between calls when Sunny seems to beginning to open up to him. This device of employing familiar voices to play the secondary characters payoff big time and again, like the consultant Doctor Eerali (Innocent), becomes a crucial part of Sunny’s life by just simply listening to his worries and insecurities sans judgement. Sunny hesitates to acknowledge the growing sense of depression in him to Eearali through their phone conversations, however gradually connects with the doctor’s kind heard advices and jabs to invoke some sense of purpose in his dismantled life.

We also have another key character Adithi ( Shritha Srinivas) , the likeable upstairs neighbor who makes life easier for Sunny with her caring ways towards his misery. These two connect as good friends from different stories of the building overcoming the isolation of their lives. There is also a very well-conceived scene in the lift between Sunny and Athidhi, just before she leaves quarantine to go back to her normal life. There are subtle indications at the innocent liking that these two develop for each other without not for once pushing it too far.

 

It is very rare to see an on-screen portrayal of a hero with zero redeemable qualities and that seems to be the case here as Sunny comes across as a train wreck of a person with little or almost no hope left in life. The writing gradually infuses the secondary characters peripheral to the major focus of the narrative – Sunny’s lonely introspection, of a life wasted. We get the wandering bits and pieces of his backstory through the abrupt calls that he has with acquaintances, friends and strangers over call. The camera follows Sunny in his fever dream like hiatus from his problems, haunting him as a mere presence in the large room, his world in the larger context.

 

Sunny features an external villain, Thomas (Siddique) – the internal villain being Sunny’s own problems and declining mental stability. The self-contained emotional drama throws at us legal disputes over past business deals, an adulterous relationship, gradual descent into madness with withdrawal symptoms showcased by Sunny in the absence of alcohol - the one thing the anchors his existence all the while. The film also sees Ranjith Sankar attaining a level of finesse with his camera placements as a filmmaker, just following the downward spiral of Sunny’s life within the confines of the flat. We get the symbolic inserts of survival thriller clichés like an ant trapped inside a glass with nowhere to go – mirroring Sunny’s state in isolation and a token for hope in the form of plant that doctor Eerali gits Sunny which he nurtures to avoid boredom, as a reminder of the beauty of life amidst all the mayhem.

 

This is a film of its times, a reminder of the conflicting nature of today's world where isolation and distancing, both physical and emotional, have become an imperative for foreseeable human progress. The writing touches upon several points but gives away a fairly easy resolution at the end to Sunny’s problem in a way that felt a little rushed. The score is very loud for such an intimate character piece and tries to over compensate the bleakness of the narrative with its imposing presence. Sunny is film that warrants its creation owing to the particularly unique condition that the world is going through right now. The film belongs to Jayasurya, he brings in a lot of believability to the vulnerable hero, on the verge of an emotional meltdown. This is a character study that belong to the fierce internalisation of the hero’s troubles that forces us to look within ourselves and reach out to loved ones in moments of crisis.