Devan’s directorial debut, Valatty, revolves around Tomy, a golden retriever with a golden heart and a lens through which he saw the word differently. His owner, Roy (Vijay Babu), loved him more than anything in the world and was looking for a suitable companion for his furry friend to breed with. Roy would die before he would make Tomy cross with dogs from lousy households. While Roy was searching the city to find a perfect partner for Tomy, he saw Amalu, a cocker spaniel that belonged to his neighbor, Saraswati (Mahima Nambiar). From the moment Tomy laid his eyes on Amalu, he lost his heart to her and began seeking excuses just to see her. Since Tomy was the coolest dog in society, he tried impressing Amalu with the tricks Roy taught him. Amalu also reciprocated his advances and fell for Tomy.
Spoilers Ahead
What Does Swami Ask Roy For?
Just like any good old love story, Tomy and Amalu’s love story had hiccups too. Saraswati’s grandmother, Mrs. Iyer, was one such hiccup and hated it whenever Tomy met Amaulu. For Mrs. Iyer, Amalu wasn’t just a dog, but Amalu Iyer, a Brahmin dog who mustn’t hang out with a dog from a Christian family. She wasn’t happy to see that the dog she raised with love and care was mingling with a fish- and chicken-eating Christian dog. On his mother’s orders, Saraswati’s father, Swami, asked Roy not to let his dog into their compound. Roy couldn’t believe Tomy had been wandering around, but Swami had CCTV footage to back it up. The thing was that Swami had found a male cocker spaniel to cross with Amalu and didn’t want Tomy wandering in his compound. Things turned complicated when it was found that Amalu was pregnant. Furious, both Swami and Roy locked up Amalu and Tomy and warned everyone against letting them out.
Why Did Tomy And Amalu Elope? Who Is Sumathi?
Both Tomy and Amalu couldn’t put their finger on the fact that their families were against their love. Tomy thought about it for a while, and when he couldn’t find any way to convince Roy and Swami to let him meet Amalu, he proposed that she elope with him. Tomy wanted to take Amalu to a place where no one questioned their love. In the morning, all hell went loose, and Roy lashed out at his servant, Ganesh, for letting Tomy out of his sight. Tomy and Amalu had a hard time adjusting to the outside world since they had never been out of their house without their owners.
They soon understood that once they crossed their house’s jamb, they weren’t expensive breeds but stray animals. On the road, Amalu and Tomy met an old stray dog when they were scrounging through trash for something to eat. The old dog taught them how to fetch food when they were out on the streets. However, he hadn’t always been a stray dog; he’d belonged to a rich family once. One day, out of the blue, his family abandoned him near the rickshaw stand. He waited for days, hoping they’d come and take him home, but they never arrived. A couple of weeks later, he saw them again, but this time with another dog with shiny fur.
As for Sumathi (Rohini), she was a middle-aged woman whom Tomy saved when she was being followed by a stray rottweiler named Bruno. The kind woman was already a parent to a stray dog named Hari Das and took Amalu and Tomy under her wing as well. Sumathi never differentiated between any of her dogs and always treated them like family. And why wouldn’t she? These dogs were her only family after her own son abandoned them.
Who Kidnaps Amalu?
One day, out of the blue, a dog catcher named Bhasi (Akshay Radhakrishnan) caught Amalu, mistaking her for a stray dog. Tomy and Hari gave chase and even took shortcuts, but sadly, they couldn’t catch up to the truck. Bhasi then took Amalu to a pound, where she was greeted by the barking of hundreds of other dogs. In the pound, every dog shared a common dream: to ditch their cages. Even though Bhasi was a government-appointed dog catcher, he was secretly working for Narendra Das Karnavar, who was paying him good money to catch and bring stray and high-breed dogs to them instead of the government. Narendra Das Karnavar (Suresh Babu Naidu) lost his license for medical and cosmetics trials and since then had been using innocent stray animals to carry out his illegal experiments. Since the government hardly paid any heed to the stray dogs, he was in the clear to carry out his illegal experiments without attracting any unwanted attention. He believed that no one would care, let alone notice if a few hundred stray animals disappeared from the city’s streets. Narendra Das Karnavar felt that he was doing a favor to everyone by keeping the stray animals off the roads.
What Did Bruno’s Owner Abandon Him?
After hearing Hari and Tomy’s account, Margaret (another dog) suspected that Amalu wasn’t taken by ABC (Animal Birth Control) but by someone else, taking them to an illegal dog pound. She advised both Hari and Tomy to track Amalu’s scent and start from the place where they first lost her. During their search, Hari and Tomy encounter Bruno, the same dog that harassed Sumathi that night. Bruno wanted to take revenge for that night and chased Hari and Tomy to an abandoned building, where Bruno unfortunately fell into a ditch. Tomy helped Bruno, and the kindness in his eyes made him realize what he had now become.
In reality, Bruno wasn’t always a bad dog, but it was the cruelty of humans that made him this way. He was adopted by a kind Christian family who loved to pamper him. Soon, Bruno became an important part of their family, but then everything changed. One day, while Bruno was in the park, he accidentally pushed his owner while he chased after a butterfly. Bruno’s owner called Bhasi to train him, but rather than taking care of him, Bhasi used to starve and cage him for days. After his owner died, his son sold Bruno to Bhasi, who forced Bruno to fight in underground dog fights. Bhasi used to administer Bruno drugs to keep him violent and vicious. He robbed Bruno of his happiness and turned him into a rabid dog. Since then, Bruno has sworn to never put his trust in any human again. However, he assured Tomy, and Hari that he would do whatever it took to help them find Amalu. Bruno, Hari, and Tomy found Bhasi while he was abducting stray animals. They chased after him, but Hari was hit by an oncoming truck and died.
Did Tomy Save Amalu?
Tomy found Amalu chained and weak in one of the rooms, where she was about to be injected with an evil 420 serum. This serum was specially developed by Narendra Das Karnavar and his team of morally corrupt veterinarians and could turn even the most innocent and passive dogs into violent ones. This was the same serum Bhasi injected Bruno with and used to fatten his pockets. Fortunately, Tomy intervened just in time and saved Amalu. Bhasi tried to stop them, but Bruno had some unfinished business with him. Bruno used everything Bhasi had taught him against him, and after he had his revenge, he freed the rest of the dogs.
Amalu couldn’t hold it any longer and eventually birthed her pups on the side of the road. As the movie drew to a close, everything fell back into place. Amalu and Tomy returned home with their pups, and both Swami and Roy welcomed them with open arms. Unlike earlier, Mrs. Iyer no longer had any problem accepting Tomy as Amalu’s partner, even though he ate fish and chicken. As for Bruno, he found both love and solace in Sumathi. However, the movie hid its biggest reveal until the very end. It was revealed that Hari survived the accident and joined the Indian Army as a sniffer dog after recovering.
Dogs are different from us humans and don’t have religions or specific obligations toward anyone. What they do have, though, are two key things: love and loyalty. You toss a dog a biscuit and some bread, and it’ll stick with you till the end, no questions asked. Dogs don’t discriminate like we do and would love us whether we’re living the high life in a mansion or struggling for a meal on the streets. Dogs just give their whole hearts, no matter what. It’s us humans who put labels on them based on their pedigree. We call the fancy, expensive ones “purebreds” and give them all sorts of cute names, while we often overlook and mistreat the stray animals, even though they have just as much kindness and love to offer. A lesson we can all take away from Devan’s Valatty is that every dog, no matter its size, shape, looks, or pedigree, is deserving of the same love they bless us with.
