June Review: a sweet memorable woman-centric movie

The new Friday Film House production June directed by Ahammed Kabeer is a really engaging feel-good drama. The lead actress Rajisha Vijayan with her top-notch performance makes June an endearing character on screen. After an uneven first half, the movie gradually gets into its zone making it one sweet memorable film with its fair share of moments.

June is our main protagonist. The movie shows us her evolution as an individual from the plus-two teenage until her marriage. Her romance, her problems, her family and her friends are the influential factors here and the movie June shows us how our main lead June evolves to be this sensible person at the end of a series of difficult and sweet experiences.

The first half of the film is a bit clumsy because of the excessive coolness quotient they have tried to embed in the school life of June. Even though it works in parts, there is a bit of overstretching in the way it has been handled. But the movie surpasses that phase without many issues and the second half where the more political stands of this film happens have a grip over the narrative and are really engaging. The way the script sets June free and asks us to be nonjudgmental gives a texture of positivity to the film. 

Rajisha Vijayan is brilliant in being June. If you look at the performance, there is a huge portion devoted to crying and I must say that she manages to cry without annoying the audience. We either laugh at her silliness or feel for her sadness. The effortless style of her acting is also commendable. New face Sarjano Khalid also gets a character that shows a transformation and he was pretty good in the character. Arjun Ashokan was free flowing as Anand. Joju George even with minimal screen time makes us all happy with his graceful performance. The new faces who were there in the cast as June’s classmates make a really good impression.

Debutant Ahammed Kabeer has understood the significance of not making things overly melodramatic. He and his writers have managed to bring realness within the filmy backdrop of the movie. The first half is perhaps the only area where they were a bit too stiff. In the second half, the script looks more confident and approaches bolder and relevant areas of female living in the contemporary world. The way multiple men comes to June’s life is not pictured in a negative way and the movie almost has the same positive vibe the recent Alia Bhatt movie Dear Zindagi had. The visuals were really beautiful and Ifthi’s music sort of stays with you after the movie. 

June is a woman-centric film for sure. But it isn’t a woman boasting film. One thing some of the other filmmakers who try to get the cheap clap of the audience by bitching about girls should learn from here is how Ahammed Kabeer managed to include problems in relationships as a process of learning in life.