Broody, black and white shots of Swapnadanam come up in my mind at least once whenever I go down the rabbit hole of dreams, psychoanalysis, Freud, Jung and the whole shebang. Not that I go down this route very often. The reason is the title of the movie - Swapnadanam in Malayalam means journey through a dream.
I saw this movie for the first time when my age could be counted on the fingers in one hand. It felt dark, eerie and strange and it stuck to my mind. I watched this movie several times afterwards at various film society screenings. In the seventies, Thiruvananthapuram served as a hatchery for several film societies tied with ISRO and my Dad used to be a member in a couple of these. The most famous among them were Soorya, SPARC, Vikas and Vishwas. Soorya film society and its 'chief operating officer' N. Krishnamoorthy went on to become a sort of a cultural institution in Kerala. These film societies had a fondness towards award winning indies, art house and international movies.The movies will be rerun several times during the years that follow after initially procuring them. There would be at least one movie each day to watch for free at Tagore theater, if you were up to it. Remember this was before television became common place in our part of the world, pre-1985.
Swapnadanam won the National Award for the best movie in Malayalam in 1976 and managed to poise delicately on the fence between art-house and commercial movies. It was also the first film by renowned Malayalam director, K. G. George. A personal point of association for me was, the main shooting location was a house in our neighborhood, although I was not present on this earth when this movie was shot right next door. It is a sprawling, gorgeous house, fit to be in Selling Sunset in the Seventies, and belonged to a son-in-law of an ex-state minister (K. R. Elamkath.)
I feel like that the house is as much a character in Swapnadanam as the actors in the movie. The rambling airiness of the mid-century modern built structure directly contrasting with the gloomy, brooding nature of the protagonist.
Below is a shot of the house from the front yard, you can vaguely make out the actors (left to right) Rani Chandra, M. G. Soman and Dr. Mohandas who plays the lead character Dr. Gopi
The film explores the state of fugue where the Dr. Gopi, a young newly married physician flees his home, leaving his new bride and ends up in different city. He has forgotten his identity and ends up in a mental asylum where under hypnosis he narrates his life story to a team of psychiatrists.
Along with direction and photography, the casting is absolutely perfect in this movie. I don't think Dr. Mohandas appeared in any other movies after this one. He was a great fit for the introverted physician, Dr. Gopi. Rani Chandra, the lovely actress who was taken away from us in an Air India air crash couple of years later, won the best actress award (state) for her work in this movie. M. G. Soman, Mallika Sukumaran, P.K. Venukuttan Nair, Prema Menon and P. K. Abraham play other important roles.
Mallika Sukumaran and Rani Chandra
K. G. George was just getting started with his series of psycho-social movies with Swapnadanam. I ended up watching (or re-watching) 3 early K. G. George movie back to back last weekend. These films are rather heavy, introspective and certainly not what you would enjoy with a side of popcorn. If you, dear Malayali, are in the mood for a serious film with a glass of whiskey, try out a K. G. George movie like Irakal or Adaminte Variyellu or Yavanika.
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