If the first thing that I do on a fine Monday morning after coming to office is to write a post on the movie ‘Pazhassi Raja’, then you can believe the extent to which it has moved me. I’m spellbound!!!
I know very little of Kerala history for which I comfortably put the blame on my academic curriculum at KV. Many of the short stories in ‘Aithihyamala’ were new to me when I read the English translation of the same recently. And since I have been very little to towns with historic importance within Kerala, I stayed aloof from the supposed to be very familiar sagas of my state. My disability of not being able to read and write my mother tongue was one more cause for the isolation.
I feel pathetic to say this but I started to watch the movie as an alien - One who had no idea of the history of the place where she was born and spent a good majority of her life. Unlike ‘Oru Vadakkan Veeragadha’, this is not a mammooty movie. It’s indeed a good multi-starrer; all are stars in their own way. Sarath Kumar, Manoj K jayan and Padmapriya were at their best. PadmaPriya was so natural in her performance right from the first scene that I didn’t bother to look at any other actor when she is there on screen. She did justice to the action sequences and she looked gorgeous even without makeup. I liked the way Manoj K jayan climbed the trees and his performance when he was brought for hanging in the cage. Sarath Kumar did the fights like any warrior; he moved the sword with ease, his attire was suiting him very well. Mammooty, as expected looked royal in his costume. Although I didn’t like Kaniha in the movie trailers because I thought that she didn’t have that Malayali look, I changed my opinion after watching the movie. She brings in that tender lady touch to the movie without which it would have been very dry.
The songs are all one better than the other. As actor Devan said, this is a movie to be watched by every malayali. This is a movie which I feel will be liked by children and adults, men and women alike. So don’t feel sad about spending 200 rupees, this is to be watched in theatres else you will miss half the thrill for sure!
I am leaving the rest to be filled in by Etta and Sree as they can bring more facts to this…
4 comments:
Sorry to be first, Since obviously someone else was expected!
I agree with the fact that this lack of local knowledge is rampant, but frankly it's all about perspective.
I like William Darymple for this. I thought I knew Madurai, been there many times, slept in all the bus stands, almost to all the places.I guess I was wrong. I did'nt know that in Madurai the Meenakshi tirukalyanam has been the same since the last 3500 years.
But I should'nt have been surprised, I came to know only recently from my Dad that the temple in my village is itself 2500 years old. it's kind of scary !!
@Anonymous,
Thats true...
One should start their history study right from your surroundings....
I feel so stupid when I get to hear some really amazhing news about my hometown from others...
hi chechi,
i think you forgot to tell about the technical aspects of the film. I haven't seen the movie yet, but I still get the feel that the background score is awesome. Everytime I see the trailer, I have goosebumps. Appreciate Resul Pookuty for that.
And I have this genuine doubt, there is scene in which Mammootty refers to the region as "Thennindia". Did the word India existed at that time?
Anyways, hey heard the news abt you. Congratulations. Put the pics on orkut :)
@Communi ;),
Thank you firstly for your wishes and also for your comment...
I will send the pics to you.
About the movie, yes you are right, I didnt go into details... since I went with people who can speak of it better. Thats the reason I just initiated the topic and left for them to complete but ya, they are too busy to look into this...
But the background score was really amazing. I have heard that there were shots including a lot of people which Resul asked for a reshoot just to get that perfect effect... which indeed shows!!!
Once again, kudos to the team!!!
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