Aanandhapuram Diaries - (f)law school

 

Aanandhapuram Diaries

2025, Malayalam

Genre: Mystery

Where to watch: Amazon Prime

Director: Jaya Jose Raj

Stars: Meena, Srikanth, Manoj K Jayan, Roshan Abdul Rahoof

Mohan's Measure: ⭐

This is the first time a Malayalam movie disappoints us. For it is more plot devices than plot.

Touted as a suspenseful mystery, Aanandhapuram Diaries starts with the tale of a divorcee who returns to her alma mater to finish law school.  We are hoping this results in some genuine humor about the generation gap, but that goes nowhere, so the story tries another plot device.  

Enter a cool swag temporary Tamil Professor who feels attracted to the college's oldest student. This 

remains somewhere as a background but never fructifies.

So, then, the director tries another angle, a star student falsely accused of molesting a minor.  Our heroine should of course take the lead to defending him.  But, another device needs to take over. 

She is simply shot. So, now the movie turns to how our heroine fights hard to recover, including making a soliloquy at a mock trial prior to the bar exam.

Now we go back to one of the plot devices that still might work, but at this point we are too confused to care.