Hridayapoorvam: Wrapped in familiar sweetness, heart and warmth intact
Sathyan Anthikad’s Hridayapoorvam brings together Mohanlal, Malavika Mohanan, Sangeeth Prathap, and Sangita in the story of a solitary man who stumbles into bonds he never knew he needed. At its ‘heart’ is Sandeep Balakrishnan (Mohanlal), a man who receives the heart of a late colonel and encounters the soldier’s bereaved family. Though it begins as a simple obligation, what unfolds is an entanglement of confused affections that a man of routine must now learn to navigate.The film is held together by Mohanlal’s performance, which makes up for occasional narrative stumbles.
Hridayapoorvam chronicles the life of Sandeep who navigates the world with rational precision, yet remains painfully oblivious to its emotional currents. The film opens with the urgency of a Traffic (2016)-style heart transplant, televised and watched across Kerala, before quickly shifting tone inside the hospital to something lighter. Sandeep is set to receive the heart of Haritha’s father, a colonel who was declared brain-dead. The premise of a heart transplant connecting people is aspirational, yet the script stretches it to exhaustion.
Haritha (Malavika Mohanan) and her mother Devika, though bound by the same loss, stand on opposite ends of how they confront it. Haritha, still unable to process her father’s absence, clings to the idea that his heart beating inside Sandeep is a continuation of his presence. Devika, by contrast, is pragmatic, viewing the transplant as a medical procedure rather than a spiritual connection. Haritha is introduced as a bold woman, unafraid to call off her engagement once she recognises her fiancé’s toxic tendencies. Yet the more the film reveals of his caricatured character, the harder it is to understand why she committed herself to him in the first place. Sangita’s Devika suggests the outline of a richer story, a woman long at odds with her dead husband’s choices, carrying the quiet weight of a life lived in opposition. The film briefly acknowledges her pain, only to undercut it by turning her into a device for comic relief. What could have been an intense portrayal is handled with a casualness. The supposed spark between Sandeep and Haritha (Malavika Mohanan) is among the film’s weakest predictable inventions. To say that the dynamic rarely convinces in selling the intended intimacy is itself problematic, since the story’s own setup already makes such intimacy awkward, placing Sandeep in an emotionally fraught space between a grieving mother and her daughter.
If Hridayapoorvam finds its liveliest pulse, it is in the effortless camaraderie between Sandeep (Mohanlal) and his aide Jerry, played by Sangeeth Prathap. Their banter, comic timing, and rapport lend the film an ease. Their dynamic serves as a reminder of Mohanlal’s gift for reshaping his screen presence to resonate with the times. He taps into the shifting cultural currents of today, whether through his recent role choices or even the jewellery commercial where he embraced, with ease, a more tender, feminine side. His interactions with the incidental characters, the psychiatrist amusingly played by Basil Joseph, the troupe of aspiring filmmakers, his staff, or even the FaFa fan in Pune, may lean on stereotypes and algorithm-driven choices, yet they bring a certain lightness. They never quite lift the narrative, but they add a surface-level charm that feels pleasant in the moment. What gives Hridayapoorvam much of its lived-in charm are the smaller roles that orbit around the central drama. The supporting cast, including Lalu Alex, Baburaj, and Siddique’s scheming brother-in-law, may feel like relics of an older storytelling style, but these peripheral figures, with their small quirks, bring an easy familiarity.
The film never strays from safe terrain, making its trajectory clear long before it unfolds. Despite decades of change in Malayalam cinema, the director remains loyal to his old formula, comforting, tried and tested.Themes such as grief, toxic relationships, fractured marriages, and generational dissonance are acknowledged, only to be softened into a safe, family-friendly register. Even the sharper conflicts, the mother–daughter quarrels or the hero’s own dilemmas, are resolved too conveniently, stripping the story of any real dramatic tension, suiting its ‘feel good’ flow.
Hridayapoorvam is a film that chooses comfort over surprise. It may not break new ground, but its familiar warmth will be enough for those who still find solace in Sathyan Anthikad’s old, dependable formula.
