I write movie reviews for a couple of reasons. One
is to keep my writing from becoming rusty. I write nothing much these
days – no poems, no journals or blogs, only occasional hashtag sentences
without spaces. All part of being one with
the times. Alternatively, I could use the oft-resorted excuse of people
with multiple progeny – busy as a bee about to go extinct.
The other reason for keeping this movie log is to
keep track of the movies I watch and to capture my reaction and
recollection of those movies. Unlike many film fiends that I know, who
can belt out dialogs or keep track and explain back
to me all the multi-linear narratives in Memento several years after
they had seen the film, I tend to forget the details of a movie soon as I
turn off the TV and put down the remote.
One night this week, between the evening rush,
dinner and getting into bed rituals I watched a Malayalam movie I must
have watched as a child, but have absolutely no recollection of. I can
blame the passage of time, a quarter of a century
or more, for my memory loss. Manivathoorile Aayiram Sivarathrikal is
often mentioned as one of the milestone Malayalam movies from the
eighties. Directed by Fazil, it had beautiful songs and a leading pair
who were pure eye candy at the time – Mammootty and
Suhasini.
The story, as I rewatch it now, is pure Mills &
Boons or Malayala Manorama – pick your poison. I wonder whether we
(Malayali audience) were so melodramatic in the eighties that we could
consume this movie without batting an eye. Not just
that, we even made Fazil’s script and movie a big hit. Considering Puli
Murugan’s success last year, we have not grown any wiser, only worse.
One thing I notice now about Fazil’s female
characters is in most of his movies one of his pivotal female characters
will die. This death becomes the undoing of all his other female
characters who are then relegated to the sidelines and
most often require a compassionate knight to see them through choppy
waters. The box office success of Fazil movies were directly tied to the
ability of his movies to work the tear glands of his female audience
(in Malayalam
- sthree janangale aake motham kanneer aniyikkunna katha)
The female lead in Manivathoor, played by Suhasini
leads a sheltered life that involves driving a Fiat (she is the default
chauffer for all the male members of her progressive family) and idling
around idyllic Ooty locales singing top 10
songs. She has absolutely no ambition other than making kanji (rice
porridge) for her physician Dad and brother at dinner and chauffeuring
them around, despite an early upbringing in the ultra-modern but morally
corrupt London town.
It would be fair to say that a film with a female
lead with such an uninspiring prosaic outlook is not going to get good
grades from me and Manivathoorile Aayiram Sivarathrikal gets a meh in my
books. On to other forgotten(by me) eighties
Malayalam movies on YouTube.
4 comments:
I like your blog. I read your thoughts on Manivatoorile Aayiram Shivaratrikal. Though i would have loved a full blown review, i enjoyed reading your words. Do continue writing. A fellow malayali and a malayalam movie aficionado.
Explicit !!
u put it well. as u said Faazil is a much overrated director in the commercial circuit. his films are nothing but mindless tear jerkiners or mawkish family dramas with no artistic qualities whatsoever
Beautifully written :)
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