Valatty Review: Written and directed Devan Jayakumar and produced by Vijay Babu, this adventure-comedy romance film features actors Roshan Mathew, Raveena Ravi, Soubin Shahir, Sunny Wayne, Saiju Kurup, Aju Varghese and others as the voices actors. The movie has a runtime of 113 minutes.
Valatty Plot
When Amalu, a cocker spaniel, and Tomy, a golden retriever, fall in love, their “relationship” is not accepted by their respective families, who belong to different religions. With their families posing as a threat to their love, the pups decide to elope and go on an adventure. However, being house pets, they are completely unaware of the threats outside their homes and are in for the ride of a lifetime.
– Velatty Review Does Not Contain Spoilers –
Valatty Review
Watching Valatty is like watching a human couple go through the heartbreak of falling for the “wrong” people and then doing whatever is necessary to live with each other. Let me preface this review with the fact that the dog actors are cute as a button; as with any movie with animals, they are the goodest boys and girls and can do no wrong. The CGI when they talk is a bit wonky, but they are so cute, so it’s mostly okay.
When we see the dogs doing dog things, it’s the cutest thing, and you’ll mostly have a smile on your face. But it’s the human-like treatment of their pups that makes it feel weird. The families telling them that they have “brought shame” to their families is both hilarious and extreme because… they are dogs, so you know. I think these moments are a bit weird, if not fantastical, but the movie showcases dogs talking in Malayalam, so you do need to suspend your disbelief a little bit.
If you are able to move past the silliness, however, Valatty is a family movie that kids will enjoy the most. It’s cute and loveable, and humorous at times. The interactions between the animals are the best bits of the movie, with the dogs talking to each other and being chased by cats and whatnot, which makes it a cute dog movie.
If, instead of pushing the human angle to make it more relatable, the movie focused on making this an animal movie, it would’ve stuck well. The human angle is the worst part of it, and, as mentioned above, it makes it awkward and fantastical. The extraordinary connection between humans and their canine buddies makes any movie amazing and enhances the narrative greatly. However, one doesn’t need to turn the dogs into humans for that – the reason why such stories work is because animals find themselves close to humans in spite of being… well, animals.
The idea that dogs, or any animal, might communicate in Indian languages is truly humorous, but, at times, the story feels like it’s about two humans rather than dogs. Which, fine – two dogs fall in love and all. But the movie doesn’t capture the true nature of dogs at all. Even the ones who talk in human languages still have to be dogs and can’t just turn into humans in animal shells!
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As the movie moves towards the climax, a whole host of exposition dumps brings the movie to its knees from where it doesn’t really recover. As I mentioned previously. It’s fine for kids who just want to watch something cute and don’t have to think too much. But if you think this is going to have some tight and heartwarming screenplay, you will be left disappointed. The corrupt dog snatchers feel like Disney villains who are just plain corrupt and bad people, nothing more.
The biggest problem with Valatty is that none of the characters are completely three-dimensional people and only fill some roles to push the narrative forward. It’s jarring seeing these people only have one thing in mind and doing nothing else. I am not going to spoil the movie here, but human beings are known to be able to tackle multiple things together instead of whatever it is that the creators thought here. Either way, everyone in the movie seems like a bad person who either hates animals or doesn’t understand animals. It’s bizarre!
Either way, the second part is super depressing and entirely unnecessary. Why a movie such as this cannot be uncomplicated and lighthearted, with a hint of drama (of course), is beyond me. It gets very dark for some reason and might just leave you a bit traumatised in the second half. It also extends the runtime for no reason and leaves you a bit frustrated because, at the end of the day, this “romance” film about dogs becomes a public safety PSA.
Valatty‘s insistence on being more than what it started out with is its downfall as it turns into this larger-than-life human movie in the guise of animals. I doubt things ever work like this, and even trying to do so in this movie feels like a sham and a forced way to make us fear for the safety of dogs. And while animal testing exists, this just takes things a bit too far for it to be realistic or relatable for us.
Valatty Review: Final Thoughts
Valatty is a weird movie whose insistence on handling dogs as if they are humans is its downfall. Focusing and understanding the fact that they are dogs and not humans would have made this a much more relatable and sweet story. The hyperfocus on whatever it is that we saw in the second half is just plain weird and doesn’t make for a fun experience. At least it provides some vigilante justice in the end; that’s always fun.
That being said, the dogs are extremely cute and will leave you smiling looking at their doe-eyed stares!
Valatty is streaming on Disney+ Hotstar.
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I watched the movie it’s lovely. Kind hearted people will like it. You review is weird and totally unnecessary. People too exposed to Korean and foreign films might feel weird. No need to support Indian movies but stop unnecessarily criticizing Indian movies hard work within their limitations.