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Appuram
Aswathy Gopalakrishnan
(for Dhruvam)
Indpendent Film Critic
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Appuram/The Other Side unfolds like flashcards, like shards of memory that Janaki (Anagha Ravi) collects and rearranges in her mind. A series of Polaroids, seemingly disconnected in time, each capturing a fleeting moment of joy or grief, burned into the teen’s psyche. At the core of the film is her mother, Chithra (Mini IG), who was pulled towards self-harm and death by acute depression, even as the daughter and her father, Venu (Jagadish), did everything in their power to keep her alive.