Diamond Necklace (film)

Plot

Arun Kumar (Fahadh Faasil) is a young Oncologist based in Dubai. He lives off of plastic money (carrying around a wallet full of credit cards), drives luxurious cars and enjoys life to the hilt without worrying about the future. The risk of such a lifestyle comes into focus when we see his car being towed by the creditors. Next we get to see that his upmarket lifestyle is like a house of cards.

The focus is on his relationship with the people around him. There is Savithri Akka (Rohini), his boss in the hospital who, in a sense, spoils him with sisterly affection. Lakshmi(Gauthami Nair), a newly recruited Tamil nurse in his department may be the first girl Arun is seriously smitten by. Lakshmi came to Dubai to fulfill her mother's dream of building a hospital in their village, as her father died due to lack of proper treatment.

Maya (Samvrutha Sunil) is a relative of Savithri, a fashion designer who was based in the UK and Paris and now settled in Dubai. She wants to start her own boutique in Dubai. Maya is engaged to Mr. Deepak, who is in France. Maya is diagnosed with cancer and treated by Savithri. Maya's fiancee Deepak leaves her due to her illness, leaving Maya depressed. While moving Maya's belongings to the ward, Arun notices a diamond necklace.

One day, Arun comes to know through Venu (Sreenivasan), a laborer who is from his town in Kerala, that his mother is not well. But, Arun cannot leave the country due to his creditors. He gets to meet Mr. Narayanan (Manian Pillai Raju), who also happens to be from his place. Through Narayanan's influence, Arun is granted permission to leave the country. When he arrives in India, he is tricked into marriage to Narayanan's niece, Rajasree (Anusree). Rajasree is a typical "village" girl who has no clue about city life.

When he comes back he finds out his friend's family has returned and he can no longer stay with him. He then goes searching for a space, but finds that he does not have enough money to pay the advance. He moves to the labor camp with where Venu is staying. Lakshmi eventually comes to know that Arun is married and puts an end to their relationship. Then finally, he ends up staying with Maya, who was apparently searching for a person to share her spacious flat. Arun and Maya develop a liking for each other. Maya was unaware of the fact that Arun is married. Savithri forces Arun to vacate Maya's flat and bring Rajasree to Dubai. Maya happens to see Arun and Rajasree together in a mall. This leaves Maya mentally shocked and her illness further aggravates and injecting morphine, a pain reliever, is the only option. Upon Maya's request, to relieve her pain, Arun injects an excess dose of morphine. Arun, to pay off his dues steals Maya's diamond necklace and replaces it with a fake one. Meanwhile, Maya admits that she is sorry to have entered into Arun's life and falls asleep. Rajasree, on finding the diamond necklace, thinks it is her birthday gift from her husband Arun.

Maya develops complications of the overdose and narrowly escapes death. Lakshmi, who was on duty at that time and had injected an initial dose of the pain reliever, was dismissed from duty. Maya leaves the hospital leaving a gift cover with Savithri to be given to Rajasree by her husband, Arun. When Arun opens the cover the gift eventually turns out to be the fake diamond necklace that he replaced.

Arun drops Lakshmi at the airport, and puts the original diamond necklace into her bag, so that she can fulfill the dream that she and her mother had seen, the hospital. Maya, even though lost all her hair as a result of the treatments, is now seen living a lonely but happy and content life at some remote Himalayan valley remembering Aruns words to live life without worrying about past and future.

The story ends with Arun realizing that Rajasree loved him more than the diamond necklace (the fake one, a fact that Rajasree was unaware of) that he had given her, when she throws it into the ocean to prove her love to him.

Cast

Production

The movie has Fahadh Faasil in the lead with three heroines played by Samvrutha Sunil, Gauthami Nair and Anushree. The movie is produced by Lal Jose and P. V. Pradeep, under the banners of LJ Films and Anitha Productions. Produced as a debut venture of his production house LJ films, the movie has him uniting with Ikbal Kuttipuram. The lyrics are written by Rafeeq Ahmed and music was composed by Vidyasagar. The audiography was done by M. R. Rajakrishnan. It was widely reported that Amala Paul had agreed to play a female lead in the film, later she was later replaced by Gauthami Nair.

Few scenes of the film was shot inside and near Burj Khalifa in Dubai.

Soundtrack

The original soundtrack and background score were composed by Vidyasagar, who had collaborated with Lal Jose in his previous films. Rafeeq Ahammed wrote the lyrics for the songs.

All lyrics written by Rafeeq Ahammed.

For the composition, Vidyasagar received Filmfare Award for Best Music Director in Malayalam and was also nominated in SIIMA Award for Best Music Director.

Release and reception

Rediff rated the film 3.5 out of 5 stars and concluded that "One can just end by saying that Lal Jose puts his might behind the change sweeping Malayalam Cinema of late and has come out with a Diamond Necklace that is not to be missed." Times of India gave the film 3 out of 5 stars and commented "it is a beautifully shot movie put together with some stirring moments and hearty one-liners by script writer Dr Iqbal Kuttipuram."

The Kochi Town Central Police registered a case against Fahadh Faasil for violation of the rule against public display of images of smoking. A poster of Diamond Necklace that showed him smoking a cigarette had been on display before the Kavitha Theatre since the film was released.

Box office

The film was commercial success and ran over 100 days in theatres. the film diamond necklace ran more over 150 days in theatres.