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Maduranombarakaatte
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'Maduranombarakaatte' A bittersweet mélange

By ApunKaChoice Bureau
Film critic, ApunKaChoice.Com

If the title is the foremost criteria to judge a movie, Maduranombarakaatte should score ten out of ten. It is lyrical and refreshing compared to the titles of some successful films that are too cold and insensitive like Narasimham, Valiyettan etc.

But those lured to the cinema by the melodious beauty of the title are in for disappointment. The film fails to live up to the poetic beauty of the title. Though Kamal has succeeded in making us feel the caress of wind throughout film, and Raghunath Paleri's story and script is sensitive and tight, the film is unlikely to remain etched on in people's memory. An overdose of tragedy and the main actors' inept acting performance in tragic scenes denies us what could have been otherwise a poetic treat, just like its title.

Left

all alone to bring up his two children, Unni and Maya, amidst social humiliation, Vishnu, the central character of the film, seeks a transfer to a distant place. Vishnu's wife, Priya, is undergoing imprisonment for a murder case. In the new place Vishnu is constantly accompanied by powerful wind, heralding the changes in his life. His friend Shekaran is the only person in the new place who knows the whereabouts of Priya. Tragedy strikes in the form of an accident first and Unni is killed. Vishnu keeps the sad news to himself waiting for the right time to arrive to reveal the news to Priya.

How Vishnu reveals the tragic news when Priya comes out of the prison and how she copes up with the misfortune form the crux of the film. When everything seems to be falling in place, tragedy strikes again in the form of Kattumaakkan, a rowdy everybody dreads.

Clearly Kamal plays to the gallery of family sympathies. He succeeded in it too as the film has been drawing good family crowds.

Biju Menon as Vishnu does show some signs of improvement in acting. Trying too hard to put up a melancholic face, he falls flat in tragic scenes. Samyukta Verma as Priya doesn't make watching the movie a boring exercise. After Manju Warrier, Samyukta Vernam is the Malayali heroine to hit the silver screen. She has bagged the leading roles in a handful of films too. But surely, she has a long way to go before she can claim Manju Warrier's mantle in Malayalam cinema.

Kamal is known for fine-tuning melodious tunes in his films. For Yusaf Ali Kecheri's beautiful lyrics and Vidya Sagar's memorable tunes, Kamal has kept his newly acquired reputation intact. P Sukumar's camera has delightfully captured the wind, and the locales before and after the wind.

Using powerful symbols and icons as tools for story narration is old-fashioned in this age of hi-technology. Even art film makers seem to have given up the idea. Kamal has successfully portrayed the wind as a symbol of change in the movie and deserves kudos. The film in any case is a refreshing break from the guttural dialogues-filled dull movies and dreary comedy films that litter the present Malayalam filmdom.

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