Coffee Bloom (Hindi) (2015)

Any of you ever been through a break-up? One in which both of you (or at least you) were so deeply involved that it has left you scarred for life? I can probably see hundreds of hands go up in the air (I say hundreds because that’s how many people follow my blog – showing off ;)).  What are the emotions that go through your head if you were to meet the love of your life (at some point in time) in totally unexpected circumstances.

Now add to this the fact that 15 years in the past, your then girlfriend and you in a moment of weakness, decide to consume poison.  You do but she does not.  You land up in hospital, drop out of college and pretty much do nothing with your life after that.  She, on the other hand, runs off to Dubai and you never hear from her every again. You drown yourself in self-pity and seek solace in discourses about life.

Lets take the term “unexpected circumstances” from the first paragraph and add another some other aspects to it. You have the bank knocking on your door because you are two months late on your dues for the coffee shop that your mother runs.  You have sold your family estate in Coorg but your mother didn’t approve of it because you never asked her.  She believes her ashes will not have a resting place.  You fight about it often only to wake up one day and realise that she has passed in her sleep.

You now make the way to Coorg (from Bengaluru) and meet the new owner of what used to be your coffee estate.  You are unable to make conversation with him for obvious reasons but bump into the love of your life in the Coorg market.  You realise that new owner and love of life are married.  What do you do?

Manu Warrier’s first movie narrates the story of Devanand Cariappa (Arjun Mathur) (read – you), Anika Panicker (Sugandha Garg) (read – the love of your life) and Srinivasan Panicker (Mohan Kapoor) (read – current husband and owner of plantation).  It is peppered with the musings of Padmashri Ashok Chakradhar and excerpts from the Geeta.  It is set in the gorgeous Biddandda Coffee Estate in Coorg.

Coffee Bloom has nothing to be embarrassed about for a first time director.  The script has few loose ends if any.  The cast did its bit and were actually impressive in parts.  It was kept tight with some really solid editing and limited to under 95 minutes which is just about right.  It has some decent background music as well. Most importantly, the story keeps moving forward and doesn’t drift.

On the negative side, it could have done with lesser philosophy.  While the poster attempts to capture the essence of the movie by saying, “There is nothing more fascinating than clarity”, it actually more about letting go / moving on.  At times the preaching begins to get to your nerves.

One thing is for certain though – you will not get horribly bored with Coffee Bloom.  It is not mainstream cinema but it definitely deserves a dekko.  Definitely better than most commercial cinema that we are subjected to in recent times.  Hope to see more of Manu Warrier in the days to come and of course Arjun Mathur and Sugandha Garg in lead roles rather than the sidekick ones they usually get. 6 on 10.

Watch the trailer on https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zt64Maw5WSU