K.G. George movies explore the darker side of human nature. If you go to the
movies for the popcorn, you should never go watch a K.G. George movie
in the theater. Not that they are playing in movie-halls anymore unless
there is a retrospective of old 80s movies. These movies are
heavy, the kind where it is better to nurse a whiskey on the rocks and chew the cud
on the vagaries of human mind the film showcases.
I
have been on a K.G. George rediscovery spree during the past one year. I
think I am old enough to understand them now. Except for his Yavanika,
Adaminte Variyellu, Panchavadi Palam and Ulkkadal - the four I had
watched a million times during my childhood, I have re-watched most of
K.G. George's filmography in the last 12 months. He directed a total of
18 films during the period from mid-seventies to 1990 and one in 1998.
K.G.G's films are not intended for 8 year olds or 12 year olds for that
matter. No wonder I was scared of them as a kid, not in the
Frankenstein kind of way, but more like being made aware of the human
monsters in our midst. The unfathomably dark depths of human mind was
not an area I wanted to be made aware of that early. The seemingly ordinary themes and characters of his movies made me uncomfortable with their layers of
psychological intrigue.
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| Seema and Karamana Janardhanan Nair in Mattoral |
Mattoral (The Other Guy along the lines of the other woman) is a study of a husband-wife relationship in the 1980s Kerala. Karamana Janardhanan Nair and Seema essay the lead pair. There are other husband-wife pairs in the film, as if to show the contrast and variety of the same relationship between different sets of people. Karamana is a government officer while Seema is a typical Malayali housewife toiling away in the kitchen, without much exposure to the outside world. Their relationship have reached a plateau after having done the necessary procreation to propagate the species.
Mammootty and Urvashi play a younger couple who are the family friends of Karamana-Seema duo. Theirs is a more modern and liberal relationship with Veni (Urvashi) working at an ad company and Balan (Mammootty) is an intellectual and Karamana's best friend. Also making appearance is Jagathy and another lady whose name I do not know, as his wife, whose raison d'être is to interfere in other people's lives.
The director has taken the actors from their comfort zones and placed them in roles we do not usually see them doing. Seema as the naive house-wife and not playing Mammotty's love interest is unusual, so is Mammootty playing second fiddle to Karamana's more central character. This is a film that would make no sense to teens or younger audience. There are so many nuances and subtleties in the frames, dialog and the story. No wonder I went to sleep when I had watched it for the first time thirty plus years ago.
There is more to the story, but I will leave it here. The revelation I had as I tick off my list of K.G.George movies is that he was/is a director or a man who could truly think like a woman and bring out the woman's perspective through his female characters. There have only been a few men authors or directors that I have come across who understand and can present believable women characters in their work, K.G. George is one of those rare species, especially in Malayalam movie world.
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