Bhramaram – Helluva ride with Mohanlal
Midway into life, Dante wandered off into a dark thicket of woods, which turned out to be the doorway to hell. He later on meets Pia in Purgatorio, where all the sins are cleansed, and the souls packed off to Paradiso, the heaven.
ricorditi di me, che son la Pia;
Siena mi fé, disfecemi Maremma:
salsi colui che ‘nnanellata pria
disposando m’avea con la sua gemma
- Purgatorio, Canto V.
Pia, who was suspected of adultery, was left to die in the obnoxious dungeons of Maremma by her husband. She asks Dante and Virgil, ‘Do you remember me, who am Pia’. The rememberances of a crime and its aftermath, is the basic theme of Bhramaram and a Dantesque ride across various terrains, both physical and emotional form the structure of Blessy’s latest.
With a thin plot, Bhramaram retains its strength from three sources, Mohanlal, Lal and Lalettan. When actors try different gimmicks to prove their mettle, some appear anywhere in between 1-15 different characters, with hazardous dosage of prosthetics, or shout their way to glory or even draw back into a shell for subtletly, here is an actor who does what actors are supposed to do, act and he does it with brilliance. 
One sees the god, devil and the man in him, the fact the ‘Lalettan Ki Jai’ chants filled up Sreekumar theatre, everytime this actor exploded in histrionic brilliance, was a great relief that the malayalam audience, have not fallen down enough, in spite of, years together promoting sub standard cinema.
The Plot (No Spoilers):-
Shivankutty ( Mohanlal) calls in at the doorsteps of Unni (Suresh Menon), seeking help to clarify a 26-year old truth to his estranged wife and daughter. The truth is a murder, for which Sivankutty had to spend 7 years in Juvenile prison. Unni and Alex ( Muralikrishnan) were the real perpertrators of the crime, and later on frame Sivankutty.
The movie is one hell of a ride from then on, which the brutally innocent,Sivankutty, and the criminals take to reach his home in interior Kerala from Coimbatore
Film Analysis
Script
The script is extremely well written, and utilizes the intriguingly flickering behaviour of Sivankutty to drive it forward. It looks as if things were written, specifically for the lead actor to perform his heart out. The weak points lay in the writing of scenes which represent Sivankutty’s past. They were very thin, crammed, superficial and executed in haste. Dialogue are pretty good, though. Some scenes are extremely well conceived, like the two companion scenes in a Coimbatore restaurant, where Shivankutty’s state of mind shows the same consideration for tea and alchohol.
What one missed in the script is the depth in characterizing supporting roles, apart from the three lead characters. A skill in which masters like MT, Padmarajan and Lohithadas excelled, giving us a wholesome, detailed feel of the premise and plot-world. Blessy seems to lack the natural flair of storytelling, which his guru had, and the promise of which he showcased in ‘Kazhcha’. Flow then on, its been a downward slide. ‘Bhramaram’ definitely brings him back on track.
Rating 7/10
Direction
Blessy is able to convey most of the idea onto the screen. Medium distance shots and long shots take up most of the films time. Very few close ups are entertained. A clever technique to distance the audience from the mind of the lead character, and let us focus on his behaviour and scenes. His capability in handling of the other lead characters of the film for brilliant outcomes is worth praise.
Rating 7/10
Cast
Mohanlal is exceptional. This years best performance by any Indian actor. 
Suresh Menon and Muralikrishnan are revelation. Suresh Menon is the same guy who appears on Hindi Television as the typecasted South Indian with a supposedly south accent. He has been tapped for his potential in this movie. Suresh menon earns respect as an actor of calibre, with this easy performance. Muralikrishnan, is quite at ease, as the scheming Alex and delivers a commendable performance. Lakshmi Gopalaswamy passes muster in her appearance as Unni’s wife. Whereas, Bhoomika Chawla and KPAC Lalitha have tiny roles, but do not go unnoticed.
Rating 9/10
Photography
Brilliant work behind the camera makes Bhramaram a nice viewing. Shots on moving vehicles have been innovatively planned and executed. It is good to see the technical side of film making being given due importance in storytelling.
Rating 9/10
Music and Sound
Though the songs are just hummable and reminds one of old malayalam melodies, it is the background score that is in close unison with the moodswings of Mohanlals character and elevates the movie to another level. Kudos to Mohan Sithara
Rating 9/10
Editing is crisp and clear. CG has been utilized to good effect. Art Direction and Costumes capture the distinct lifestyles of the lead characters with great competence.
Overall Rating – 8/10
Tags: Bhramaram, Blessy, Dante, Divine Comedy, Lohithadas, Malayalam cinema, Mohan Sithara, MohanlalThis post is dedicated to the Memory of Lohithadas, who left us on 28-Jun-2009
After an enriching Saturday night with Lalettan and Blessy, I woke up late, to the sad news of the demise of one of the best scriptwriters to ink malayalam cinema with rich colours of human emotions, Lohithadas. He will be remembered for his partnership with Sibi Malayil and Mohanlal, when he scripted some of the most endearing cinema in Malayalam like Kireedom, Bharatham, Kamaladalam and His Highness Abdulla. He maintained a successful team with Sibi Malayil whose films like ‘Thaniyavarthanam’ , ‘Valayam’ all dealt with raw tales of human weaknesses . Lohi will always remain in our memories through his exceptional body of work
Anurag Kashyap
Abhay Deol
Dibakar Banerjee
Hansal Mehta
Khalid Mohamed
Kundan Shah
Anish Kuruvilla
Jaideep Verma
Manish Gupta
Navdeep Singh
Bhavani Iyer
D. Santosh
Onir
Ashvin Kumar
Ramu Ramanathan
Sudhir Mishra
Pankaj Advani
Revathy
Saurabh Shukla
Shilpa Shukla
Sujoy Ghosh
Suparn Verma
Santosh Sivan
Shashank Ghosh
Shivajee
Pavan Kaul
Partho Sen-Gupta
Prroshant Naryannan
Sam Langoria
Satish Kasetty
R.I.P Lohithadas….another gem of malayalam cinema passes away…
I will watch Bhramaram now thanks to you.
Nice to see Mohanlal back to where he belongs. I hope to see mamootty too back, from the ‘Superstar’ glass bubble..
Already we have thamizh film goers cleansing themselves of their sins by punishing superstar vehicles and rewarding good ones. I hope Malayalam film goers too reward good ones this year..
Watch brahmaram for it’s photography,music,editing and direction..and acting by Mohanlal..He is simply outstanding..But the story lacks completeness..entire film depends on one actor..
I wish the movie releases in banglore soon enough… i envy all who saw the movie….
I really dont know why i end up in silly debates on who’s the best actor in malayalam and india. had that yesterday too and i feel most ppl dont obeserve whn they say kamal is the best and mammokka and lal are a shade below.
for me lal and mammokka has been the top notch as far as lead actors are concerned. kamal falls a shade below as i feel he did not get the kind of scripts and charecters lal and mammokka got. he was like more of makeup’s and ive felt he was not natural.
lal scores over mammokka whn it comes to improvization and the very subtle changes he improvises in his performances and also he’s completely natural and versatile(AS Ram V has said in his 3rd Para) Mammokka has acted in better scripts than lal…
It can be coined into a single line that Mammokka is an expert actor where as lal just lives thru the movie even though ppl fail to realize the minute nuances lal can bring into his performance…
Jibin, true that we lost a great talent…he was out of sorts over the last few years, but still he was good enough…
VPJ, First of all, thanks for the reminder on Lohi.. and I felt really happy to see Mohanlal performing with the audience applauding good scenes…hope to see some sensible stuff from both M’s…In Tamizh, Nadodigal is riding some great reviews….wanna see how it turns out.. :-)
Jaison…Agree, only if the script, especially the backstory were more deep, this would have been a greater movie…
Ram M… I feel impish like the Onida Devil… :-) Hope it releases soon in Bangalore soon… I would have been happier with a more detailed backstory to Lals character…but everything takes a step back, before his magnificient artistry. Mohanlal can be the necessary and sufficient condition to watch ‘Bhramaram’, whether you are his fan or not… I agree with you on Mammu and Kamal…. Kamal is a great showman, a performance artist born and bought up in cinema…
Great article, we will miss lohi.
Coming back to movie, great to see blessy is back in form and with Lal.
Hope to catch it in mumbai soon.
Thanx for a nice review Ram V…
Great to see Mohanlal back to doing something meaningful… Also nice to see the Kerala audience lap it up…
Brahmaram is probably a great tribute to Lohi as it involves some of his favs like rough chars, a journey involving Lorry’s and Jeep’s, a violent backrop…. All this coming from one of his assistant directors…. Lohi we will miss you… Thank you for some glorious movies that will be cherished for ever…
Ram V: Thanks for saving my sanity. I doubted I’d lost it when couple of my articulate & better educated friends were surprised when I said I liked this film very much. I didn’t expect Blessy will handle this subject so well after the mess he made of Calcutta News. BTW, I didn’t get the Dante bit.
I wish Lohi’s Chakram was made as originally planned with Mohanlal & Dileep with Kamal as the director. It’d have been an additional feather in his cap. :-)
Cinemausher…thanks…and we will miss him for sure..
Vinod Divakar…thanks…cant avoid the the Lohi hangpver when one sees Lorry drivers..never knew that Blessy assisted Lohi…which movies did he work for ?
Gattu… you have lots of like minded company… Some genuinely did not like it, and felt that the story is not upto the mark…which is true…but its Lalettan acting festival that makes this one a must watch…
Dante bit refers to the sinned souls who are kept in purgatory till they repent and then freed to heaven, cleansed…you get my drift :-) …. Purgatory is not as cruel as Inferno (hell) where ultimate non-repentive sinner are perenially tortured in after-life …Its a leaf out of Dante Aligheri’s ‘Divine Comedie’…
Very nice review Ram. Superb writing. Really looking forward to this being a huge huge Mohanlal fan. In my opinion Lalettan has not delivered anything worth remembering since Vanaprastham (1999) and Iruvar (1997).
Blessy is a few notches below his gurus. He has noble intentions and it committed to good cinema, but doesn’t quite have to talent of yesteryear giants. So I don’t really expect too much from Blessy films, but if Lalettan’s performance is anything like what you said, then this is a must-watch for me.
Thanks so much for the Lohithadas obit. He’s had such an influence on me, really felt sad when I heard of his untimely death. If I love cinema, then Lohi’s films have played a huge part in it. I am yet to find another writer who’s stories have influenced me so much. My fav are Kireedam, Dasharatham and Thaniyavarthanam. He along with Pappetan, MT and Sreenivasan are responsible for the Golden phase of malayalam cinema in the mid 80s to mid 90s. May his soul rest in peace.
From mid 80’s to late 90’s the Hindi film industry were driven by Stars, Superstars. The same trend can be seen in malayalam cinema these days! This is because of lack of good concepts, lack of co-ordinating good people, lack of experimentation. I hope this phase in malayalam cinema phase out soon. I feel pity when I see my legendary actor’s movie with the starting title ‘Super MegaStar Mohanlal in and as’. Mohanlal is a gem of an actor , let him be an actor, why make him a star, superstar and limit his capabilities. Due to this the actor is left with no choice than by doing cliche characters from the recent past.
I haven’t seen Brahmaram, but the overall responses looks good. Let’s hope this film and Passenger will bring back the nostalgia of golden era of Malayalam Cinema as it used to be in late 80’s and early 90’s.
Regards,
ram v,
i guess one has to observe deeply and very carefully to understand the minute nuances lal makes in his performances,
we can classify mammokka,s and kamal power packed performances in quite a lot of movies, but lal many at times even when the role hasnt been good or upto his standards improvise in probably a 5 sec frame which conveys a lot.
balettan is nothin more than a run of the mill movie, but see the 10 sec frame where lal comes to know the death of his father nedumudi.. mind blowing…
so rahul.. lets not to try to cross examine lals performances in the last decade.. its just the general state of movies these days.. below par.. just a system and lal, mammokka and all actors are just sucked into the system..
even lohi did not hav any good scripts after bhoothakannadi which released in 1998…
Rahul…Thanks…you should enjoy Bhramaram for sure… could not agree more with you on Blessy observation… Lohi is definitely a great loss…
His films are there with us, though and it is unavoidable that the malayali consciousness will retain Lohi’s cinema till eternity…
Suraj..We cannot sustain the thought of a talent like Lal or Mammootty being wasted in the name of Stardom…It cannot happen in malayalam cinema..never
Ram M… truly, I donot remember anything from Balettan :-), I sincerely wish I had never seen the movie… but yes Lalettan brings in lot of small little touches even from his early days… He was seldom uncomfortable in front of the camera… Mammootty, however, cannot be rivalled in the depth he brings in his potrayals, no other actor matches his precision…
Hi Ram,
I think Blessy assisted Lohithadas from Bhoodhakannadi till Joker… if not more than that… may not be all movies but in Bhoodhakannadi I kind of recollect seeing his name in the list of Assistant directors…
@RamV
You are right in the sense that we cannot sustain real talents being dissolved in stardom! But that is happening in today’s Malayalam Cinema. From 2000, I can recall only one movie in which Mohanlal has outplayed all his previous performances and that was ‘Tanmaatra’ rest were usual stuff (nothing great), some below his standards, except his recent ones like PagalNakshtram, AakashGopuram, Paradesi and Brahmaram (as I haven’t seen these movies). Mohanlal is one of those actors who can change the face of Malayalam cinema by promoting/acting best films, but the pressure that he is facing down Kerala might make him feel to play it safe. Let’s hope for a bright future for Malayalam Cinema, it’s like a cycle something good might happen soon!
@Ram M
Balettan was one of those weakest films played by Mohanlal. The director V M Vinu seems an overhyped director. The only scenes i remember from this movie is about Jagathy Sreekumar natural ability to portray any character, in Balettan he constantly rubs his body because of the itch! Really Awesome and very natural!
Regards,
Somehow I felt the film was a great letdown. If somebody is to consider this as the movie where Lal has proved his acting then I don’t think so. Lal has done it time and again in the past and this movie just again shows that Lal can do it. But let us look at it in a whole. Don’t we have scenes in this movie created for Lal to just emote whithout an organic connection to the overall movie? I think yes. And that also may have killed the movie. That is also why characters do not seem to have grown through the movie and etched a permanant place in the viewer’s mind.
Of course, needless to say the script was incomplete and lacking cohesion. As a one liner the plot somehow seems good enough; interesting enough and intuiging enough. But what was needed was some sensible developement – tell what needs to be told and dont tell anything extra(which is a big complaint I have with Blessy scripts after kazhca and probably Thanmathra) That acute sense of appropriateness that we used to see in Padmarajan, Lohi and MT scripts are seriously missing in Blessy scripts.
Another note that I want to mention is the casting – the whole casting of Mohanlal’s family and his flashback is pathetic to say the least. Bhumika Chawla and the kid casted as Mohanlal’s daughter irritates and takes all the life out of the most critical sequences in the movie. That was another really sad part of this movie.
As a post note, as a simple film viewer Bhramaram disappoints much more than an average movie (like Bagyadevatha which delivered what it promised), by overpromising and underdelivering.
Vinod…thanks for the info…
Suraj…I think people are fed up with Chota mumbai, Hallo, Flash , Natturajavu and other torture… I saw ‘Paradesi’, found it to be overtly melodramatic…subtlety is not there in PTK’s dictionary… I am yet to see PN and AG…Mohanlal and Mammootty both enjoy more acting in movies of substance…but they have to make them… I am sure we would have good stuff… looking forward to Pazhassi Raja and Kutty Shranku from Mammootty next…
INetIdentity…great points…I agree…especially on the ‘tell what needs to be told and nothing extra part’…there was so much that could have been well thought out…maybe Blessy does not have that elucidating skill…as simple as that…
@ Ram-
I really envy you & the others who’ve managed to watch Bhramaram already.this is something I’m looking forward to eagerly.been told thats its release in chennai is expected soon & I for one will surely watch it.From what I’ve heard its like a redemption for lalettan and blessy.and I’m mighty pleased that Suresh Menon has been well utilised.
Mammooka will have his moment soon with Pazhassi Raja and Kutti Shranku.Till then we have to bear him in Daddy Cool and Pattanathil Bootham
RIP-Lohithadas.you were a wonderful writer-director.One more wicket falls, hope someone new will arise soon.
@INetIdendity
You hit the nail regarding Lal’s performance in Thanmathra. I for one thought that Lal’s performance was not near his best. But, then the anyone whom I said this to ridiculed me. Even the role is roughly similar to the one done by AB in Black. I thought even AB was loud and the performance was not as great as it was made out to be…
I think we are (especially those who analyze Malayalam Films) besieged by what they refer to in Christianity as ‘John the Baptist Complex’. I don’t know, but we are so hell-bent on witnessing renaissance that we would probably christen all those Precursors as ‘The Lord’.
‘Back to our Golden Age’, ‘The breakthrough film we were waiting for’…. I mean seriously… I thought Lohitadas’s ‘Bhootakannadi’ was what I would call one of the last ‘masterful films’ to come out of Malayalam. It portrayed the trivialties of life and those facets of human nature brilliantly, and it indeed was a masterful evocation of time and space. But, since then, I have not seen a single Malayalam film that can be termed as pathbreaking. I thought ‘Danny’ was good. Kazhcha was so highly regarded because it probably was like a droplet in the face of acute drought.Kazhcha was good mind you(And easily Blessy’s best – considering the kind of stuff he has dished out since). But it just wasn’t like a Padmarajan movie or something. I mean it was decent storytelling, and nothing more. And this chap,Blessy,just doesn’t know how to etch out female characters. He just keeps them hanging like doppelgangers. To me his female characters seem like they were written in because he had no other option on hand. I mean they are just not sensual; very very cardboard and very very orchestrated.
But the main issue to me is… what I really don’t understand is, this tendency of ours to patronise just about anything that is ‘half-decent’. I think that’s whats killing Malayalam Cinema. It’s not an ‘Annan Thambi’ or a ‘Thuruppugulaan’ or a ‘Chotta Mumbai’.. It’s these ‘Katha Parayumbol’, ‘Orey Kadal’, ‘Thanmathra’ and ‘Udayananu Thaaram’.
I mean, we have been fed these ‘Artificial Foam Cakes’ for so long now that we don’t actually know what a good ‘Cheesecake’ tastes like..And that’s really, really sad.
@Sethu…Trivandrum is the key…you have be there, that also in the unmatchable Sreekumar, which has played almost all of the Swargachithra and Padmarajan hits since forever…
Dont remind me that there are going to releases called as Daddy Cool and …fucking bootham…I sincerely hope they get canned…
@Vasu…Thanmatra is one film where I found Lal hamming…horror…Black was torture…Big B is the biggest fucking ham master…
@Sreehari… Except for Ore Kadal.. I agree with what you said completely… Ore Kadal was probably the one good film I saw in Malayalam previous to last year…Technically very good, well adapted and excellently performed, by Mammu and Jasmine chechi….
Going through the discussion thread on the Golden period of Malayalam cinema. Is this feeling more due to what each one of us had grown up watching? May be we should ask our previous generation who grew up on movies made by Ramu karyat, P Vincent or a K S Sethumadhavan, as to how exactly they felt about the next generation of movies made by I V Sasi, Bharathan and Hariharan.
Because, even if there was a golden period of Malayalam cinema I see people usually refer to it as differently. Someone mentioned the golden period as starting from mid-80’s. Apparently, those who think that way are overlooking directors like P N Menon (who was the first to make realistic movies in Malayalam) which was followed by a a generation of revolutionary film makers like John Abraham and P A Becker and a new group of art-house film makers like Adoor Gopalakrishnan and Aravindan who took Malayalam cinema to the international film festivals, and the early works of Padmarajan, Bharathan and K G George. No doubt around mid 80’s, there emerged film makers like Sibi Malayil, Sathyan Anthikkad, Priyadarsan and Kamal who brought in a new, refined and fine aesthetics to our mainstream cinema.
But, yes. It is not doing any justice to Blessy and Padmarajan when someone compares the two. Just compare the early three works of Padmarajan Peruvazhiyambalam, Oridathoru phayalwan and Kallan pavithran with Blessy’s first three films Kazhcha, Thanmathra and Palunku. Blessy had never bothered to picturize the uniqueness of every man’s life and has never managed to dig into the depths of his mind, like the genius in Padmarajan did. The only time I saw him trying to do this was towards the climax of an otherwise pathetically made Palunku, where when the daughter goes missing, both the husband and wife does not bother to go to police, because the husband was afraid of questions about his absence from home, and the wife was enjoying the possession of the newly bought washing machine. Otherwise, let us wish Blessy does more homework with his characters and plot, not just for his own sake, but also for the sake of malayalam cinema.
@ Sreehari – Maybe as a parallel track (not really complementing or supplementing your argument), one movie which comes to my mind which broke a lot of fresh territory was ‘Sancharam’ thematic as well as treatment wise, and maybe there woudl be others too similarly… So the point I am making here is that fresh perspective is one key thing what we are looking for – either be it from new comers or veterans. As a cinewatching group we are a lot who have been bred with creative exposure to this medium, and our sensibility seems to keep demanding it.
@ JRV – Maybe the reason why we somehow tend to go back and compare many of our cinematic nostalgia to this particular era -’80s (in addition to what you mentioned) is because that was an era which had blended our nearby economic and accessible cinema halls to our need for meaningful 2-3 cinematic hours which leaves lasting impressions.
Bhramaram has released in Coimbatore today.So those in Coimbatore can rejoice.Been told Chennai & Bangalore are the next destinations.Makes sense – these are the 3 cities outside Kerala which really bring the bucks for a malayalam movie.
I am yet to watch Bhramaram. It will take some time before it reaches Pune. But responses heard from sensible movie fans in Kerala is that Mohanlal is Back in Top form. Some even dared to rate this as his best ever performance which is highly unlikely. But atleast this should be his best after Vanaprastham.
For sometime I had thought that Lal had completely lost his subtlety & timimg. Coutsey Over the Top Hamming in Tanmatra. For the first time I was seeing Lal , The master of subtlety going over the board. Happy to hear that the Master is back in form.
Watched this movie yesterday at Tilak. It was Mohanlal,s show all the way.I to found that supporting cast was not well etched, but then it was such a pleasure watching Lal,s acting you relish in every scene he appears.
Though Blessy is back in form, i still feel the movie would not have been watchable if had cast anyone else on Lal,s role.
On other note, many non-mallus would not see this, because they have not released this movie with subtitles.It is shame on part of producers for not releasing subtitled print.