Hey Jude Movie Review

Hey Jude Story: Hey Jude celebrates the innate, beautiful things in human beings and life as a whole. For the world, Jude (Nivin Pauly) and his thoughts are a puzzle. However, certain unforeseen incidents take him to places where he has never been and his experiences help him shed his inhibitions.

Hey Jude Review: The film starts with Jude, who has Asperger’s Syndrome. His father Dominic (Siddique), sibling Andrea and others are baffled by his behaviour as he is quite fastidious. His bizarre ways test the patience of everyone, except his mother Maria (Neena Kurup).

Jude’s past experiences have been so overpowering that it has cast a shadow on his persona and made him a walking-talking automaton. At this point, he meets Crystal (Trisha) and her father Sebastian (Vijay Menon), who in the guise of free-spirited neighbours, enlighten him about life and its lessons.

Jude and his sister are poles apart. While Andrea acts her age, goes out with friends, Jude’s desires are limited to owning a saltwater aquarium and the like. He gets uneasy when his dosa is not crispy or if his lunch is not ready by 12.30, after which he loses interest.

However Dominic, who belongs to an Anglo-Indian family, lives for money. After the sudden demise of his paternal aunt Olivia, he and his wife move with Jude to Goa to carry out the proceedings according to his aunt’s will. Jude is forcibly taken along so that he doesn’t trouble his sister back home. What starts off with a lot of grumbling for Jude later turns into a life-changing experience.

His father is literally on cloud nine when he is informed that the entire property will now be handed over to him, the only barrier now is the tenants at his newly-inherited outhouse – Sebastian and Crystal.

In his constant pursuits to steer clear of the pompous and loud neighbours, he sends Jude for negotiations. Contrary to his expectations, Jude and Crystal soon forge a friendship during one of the former’s half-hearted attempts of convincing them to move out of the house.

Sebastian, a former psychologist, and Crystal are intrigued by Jude’s ardent love for numbers. While Jude suffers from symptoms of social withdrawal, he makes an entry in his visual diary and explains how everything is so clear when it comes to numbers, while people’s emotions are vague and complicated.

With each passing day, the narrative changes from his strong dislike for the place to a more grounded feeling towards Goa. His timetables and timeframes slowly are blurred slowly.

On the other hand, Jude realizes that behind the liberated soul of Crystal, she fights her inner demons. Gradually, Jude learns to unlearn things and starts living life from scratch. How he does it and says ‘Let there be light’ forms the rest of the story.

Shyamaprasad takes a different route with this film, which is a celebration of life. Nivin is earnest in his portrayal and makes Jude an endearing character. Watching Trisha as Crystal makes you feel that she has always been a part of Malayalam films as she is at ease with her character. A different side of Siddique is seen as the money-minded Dominic and Neena Kurup plays the doting mother to perfection.

The songs composed by Ouseppachan, Gopi Sunder, Rahul Raj and M Jayachandran match the narrative. The cinematography is such that the surreal locales of Goa coupled with a feel-good narrative gives the message that life is what you make of it and that each moment is worth celebrating.

Hey Jude is a coming-of-age story, be it for Jude, Crystal, Dominic or the audience as it teaches us that there is an abnormality in almost everyone and life doesn’t stop there.