Many quit smoking after watching Theevandi But Tovino continuously smoked for 35 days

Theevandi- a film that isn’t afraid to take some risks. It breaks some rules and operates on its own rhythm. And it isn’t afraid of being slightly irreverent at times. Just like its characters, it is aware of its own absurdity, and therein lies its beauty. This is a film designed to put you completely at ease: it won’t cause a spike in your blood pressure or increase your heart rate.

Directed by newcomer Fellini TP, Theevandi is comprised of a series of amusing episodes stitched together and is replete with conversations.

Binish (Tovino Thomas), a 27-year-old nicknamed “Theevandi” (train) because of his cigarette addiction. But if he intends to settle down with his girlfriend Devi (newcomer Samyuktha Menon), he’ll soon have to give up the habit. And to make things more interesting, the political future of two men — one from Binish’s family (Saiju Kurup) and the other from Devi’s (Suraj Venjaramoodu) — depends on Binish’s decision to quit or not quit smoking. This is where the real fun begins.

 

And given this bad habit, one would assume this film is a statement on smoking and its ill-effects. You expect intense depictions of the hero’s withdrawal symptoms ala Trainspotting. It is nothing of the sort (although there is one scene where Binish experiences minor hallucinations brought on by the withdrawal).

In addition to exploring that emotion associated with making a choice between growing up and staying a kid, Theevandi is a light-hearted satire that takes on several issues, from anti-smoking videos (like the Rahul Dravid one) shown in theatres to the dangerous Blue Whale challenge. There is a perfectly timed scene where one character’s Blue Whale challenge clashes with Binish’s attempts to break a cigarette-smoking record at the same time. It’s a brilliantly done instance of dark humour.

There are reports that some viewers decided to quit smoking after coming out of the theatre. But there lies a dark secret even many quit smoking the actor continuously smoked for 35 days. Yhh you heard right Tovino has a lot more scenes to do with cigarettes in the movie so he smoked but maybe he smoked a little more with the re-takes.