Hridayam (film)

Development

Hridayam was officially announced in December 2019, set to be produced by Visakh Subramaniam and co-produced by Noble Babu Thomas, starring Pranav Mohanlal, Kalyani Priyadarshan, and Darshana Rajendran, intended to be released during Onam 2020.^[11] The film marks the comeback of film studio Merryland Studio into film production after a hiatus of 30 years, under the new company Merryland Cinemas.^[12] Vineeth told in an interview that the characters in the film draws inspiration from moments and memories from his and his wife's lives and their friends' from college and life beyond that.^[13] According to Vineeth, Hridayam is about a young man named Arun Neelakandan and "tracks his journey right from when he was 17 to 30 years old. We have tried to convey the various highs and lows in his life, his friendships, love, emotional ups and downs, career-related uncertainties, up to the time he is about to be a family man".^[14] He described the film as a coming-of-age drama. Talking about how much of his real-life is presented in the film, Vineeth said that it is "based on a lot of incidents that happened during my college life in Chennai. The first half of the film is a cinematic dramatisation of real-life events. Thattathin Marayathu is a campus I am not familiar with. But this is home". About casting Pranav, Vineeth said that he liked him from Aadhi, there was something special about his eyes and smile in it, and that he wanted a charmer rather than an accomplished actor, like Suriya in Vaaranam Aayiram or Logan Lerman in The Perks of Being a Wallflower.^[15]

Filming

The film began principal photography in early February 2020.^[16] After a schedule in Kochi, filming was shifted to Kollengode, Palakkad for a two-day schedule. The film's main location was Chennai.^[17] Filming was paused in March 2020 due to a 21-day COVID-19 lockdown in India. By then about 50 percent of the film was complete, primarily featuring Pranav and Darshana. Filming was put on hold indefinitely after the surge of COVID-19 pandemic. It was resumed in January 2021. Kalyani joined the sets. Vineeth recalled in an interview that he never saw Pranav reading his dialogues on location as he would have learned it by rote. Significant parts of the film takes place in a college.^[18] It was shot at KCG College of Technology in Chennai, where Vineeth and his wife studied.^[19] That schedule was concluded in Kochi on 21 January. Vineeth said that Hridayam gave him the most fun working in a film since Thattathin Marayathu.^[13] For certain scenes, Rohit [A.D.F Of Mumbai] made the actors listen to music to get them feel the mood of the scene.^[15] Another schedule in Chennai was concluded on 11 February, about 95 percent of the film was complete by then.^[20][21] Principal photography was complete by mid-March, with one song remaining to be shot with limited crew. The film, which was originally charted to shoot for 100 days in multiple schedules was able to complete in 60 or more days.^[22] The follow-up 5-day song shoot was held in July 2021 in Andhra Pradesh.^[23] Post-production of the film was completed by October 2021.^[24]

Theatrical

When the filming was through midway in March 2020, the producers announced that the film will have a theatrical release.^[29] In October 2021, it was announced along with the song "Darshana" that the film will have a worldwide theatrical release on 21 January 2022.^[30]

Home media

Disney+ Hotstar acquired the film's post-theatrical digital distribution and premiered on 18 February 2022; the satellite rights were bagged by Asianet.^[31]

Box office

The film was a commercial success and earned more than ₹50 crore (US$5.2 million) at the box office.^{[citation needed]}

Critical response

It received generally positive reviews from critics. Rating 3 out of 5 stars, The New Indian Express said that "Vineeth Sreenivasan has structured Hridayam in a way that makes it seem like you're watching two feel-good films for the price of one", and that the film has a therapeutic quality that "makes you feel less embarrassed about the awkward, foolish things you did in the past", and "as a coming-of-age drama, Hridayam is to Vineeth Sreenivasan what Premam was to Alphonse Puthren. (If given a choice, I would easily pick Hridayam over Premam). It's one of those films I wanted to hug once the end credits started rolling", also praised the casting.^[32] The Times of India gave a rating of 3.5 on 5 and wrote "Hridayam tries to give a realistic, coming-of-age depiction of a Malayali's campus life in Chennai and those who have done engineering in the city might connect with it the best, thanks to the different moods, flavours and vibes of the city woven into the narrative in a hearty manner ... The movie has an interesting emotional core, brought out by performances of Pranav, Darshana and others, which makes gentle tugs at the viewers' heartstrings".^[33] The Week also rated 3.5 out of 5, called it "a coming-of-age drama high on emotions" and stated that "Vineeth Srinivasan is back with a feel-good, new-age drama that most youngsters can relate to ... Arun is safe in the hands of Pranav, who has indeed grown as an actor", also praised the music and cinematography.^[34]

The Quint rated the film 2.5 on 5 and wrote that "Hridayam is Vineeth's labour of love, a tribute to his campus life"; the film is "a fun-filled coming-of-age drama set in a typical engineering college campus; of love, break-ups, heartaches and the discovery of life in the process, also spilling over to the next phase of the lives of the protagonists", concluding that "Hridayam is eminently watchable and you are sure to leave cinemas with a lighter heart after watching it".^[35] Pinkvilla rated the film 3.5 on 5 and described the film "a marvelously structured memory piece on soul searching", saying "Hridayam is a gigantic, ambitious puzzle of a narrative, built confidently around a certain time in a person's life that informs the type of person that you turn out to be in the future. The screenplay is infused with fifteen songs yet the interlacing works for the nature of the story, a character driven memory piece as opposed to a plot heavy drama".^[36] Manorama Online wrote that "there is romance, friendship, heartbreak, pathos, and life in Hridayam. That's Hridayam in very simple terms. A beautiful gift during these trying times ... One can't even visualise any other actor in place of Arun Neelakandan. Pranav has come a long way since his first film. His charm is undeniable. And that's exactly what makes us warm up to Arun Neelakandan".^[37]