Kaazhcha – The Edge of Love

PROJEKT iVIEW | Movies | September 3, 2006 at 12:05 pm

Kazhcha – The Edge of Love

What did Malayalam film industry gain through the film “Kazhcha” in 2004??
The answer would be the dawn of a promising film maker – “Blessy”, who would definitely become one of the best directors in Malayalam cinema in a few years from now. This statement is made since just two films (his only 2 films) made him one of the best and reliable film makers in the industry.

The award for the best debutant director for the first movie and the best director award for the second movie would be one of the rarest achievements for a director in the industry.

When Mammootty was awarded the best actor in his first film – “Kaazhcha”, Mohanlal was awarded the best actor for his second film “Thanmathra”. Both of these movies can be considered as one of the best from them in their career.

Looking deep into Kazhcha

It would be difficult to believe that “Kazhcha” was a director’s first independent attempt as he proves himself awfully mature in his visuals and the narration in filming a serious subject. In just 2 films, he is worth comparable to the best directors like Sibi Malayil and Jayaraj who have handled similar subjects in Malayalam film industry.
The film though did not have a spectacular opening in the box office, it pulled in the majority of the family audience and ran in the release centers for more than 100 days

Kazhcha is the story of a tourist film operator (Madhavan, portrayed by Mammootty) who screens 16mm films in festivals and schools in Kuttanad. He meets a boy(pawan) who spoke a strange language similar to Hindi, who sticks around him. Madhavan finds the boy to be sick and takes him home caring him like his own son. Though language is a barrier between them, the boy soon turns out to become an inevitable factor in Madhavans family. But, the judiciary and bureaucracy becomes a barrier between Madhavan and pawan.
In the rest of the story, Madhavan tries to find pawan’s parents and takes him to his own land and the film makes a realistic ending leaving a drop of disturbance and depression in the minds of the audience.

Kaazhcha

The director did not line up all the best actors in the industry for the movie and many of the faces were new, or were not very familiar. Still no scene gives a clue of anything artificial and each character – big or small, lives in the film. The dialogues in the film are simple and doesn’t bring in lots of philosophy and drama.

The down to earth picturization of the backwaters of Kuttanad reminds T.K Rajeev kumars Kannezhithi Pottum thottu. Looking deep into the movie reveals that the director has taken special care in picturizing the unimportant scenes too. These include hospital scene (when pawan is left alone), the tea shop, and the little things shown in the background that moves in parallel with the movie.
The keen interest shown in depicting even the minute things in the every day life in Kuttanad village is also worth mentioning.. The school boat (instead of a school bus), the milkman, fisher man, the background radio music in the tea shop, the pets owned by Madhavan(the hen and chicks and the dog), the rain and even the frog has something to play in the movie…

The Music
The music for the film(Mohan Sithara) is exceptionally good. Especially the Guajarati song, which was a different experience for Malayalam music as a whole. The song was sung by Anwar, who is from a normal family from Beemapally, Trivandrum with no known musical backgrounds. The song takes us to Gujarat for a while and the movie takes a beautiful turn as the song flows in. The sweet melody note sung by Yesudas also fits best in the movie at the right spot.
The background score was also up and above the mark, but I personally think, that it would have been sweeter in Johnson’s hands.

Awards
Kaazhcha bagged a couple of state awards for the year 2004 though not recognized in the National awards.
Blessy won awards for “Director of the best film with popular appeal and aesthetic value” and “Best Debut Director”. Mammootty won the best actor award and both the child artists won the best child artists award.

The disappointing thing is the time that Blessy waited to make a film of his own as he has been in this industry for the past 20 years or more. We lost a handful of excellent movies just because he made a late entry. The whole Malayalam industry is looking forward for his next movie.

In a nutshell, Kazhcha is a must see movie….This movie is not for the crowd who expects the usual masala stuff. I would personally rate this movie as excellent.