Naalu Pennungal: Women world of Adoor has a global appeal
If one wants to watch a film where each frame speaks in its totality whether its scenic beauty or visual aspects of characters portraying the emotions and where camera’s physical presence is almost absent from the screen and it fulfils the sole purpose of becoming the medium to show something, which is significant to the story, on screen and not for a single moment one realises the movement of the camera though in reality its moving but its moved in such a fashion that it keeps pace with the movements and moods of the characters then Naalu Pennungal is the film that fulfils these demands. Camera should not show its existence in an explicit way in such a character driven film and which is resting on the social customs, human behaviour and psychology. And not to mention that in spite of slow moving or static camera work, film is nothing but a visual fiesta. Kerala comes out truly as a land of beauty. Trees, flowers, river whose surface is totally covered by the leaves fallen from the trees, and soil, stones and rocks and of course so lively human characters appear on screen in their powerful cinematic incarnations.
Stills from the film can be seen here.
Background music is an outstanding achievement in the film and it remains there true to the nature of particular part of the film and looks completely natural because when characters are in the midst of the nature then only chirping of birds is heard and when a sound is not needed then silent moments are maintained and in second and third part of the film wonderful use of music in the background can bring almost state of ecstasy to the audience and there comes the danger also because this music is so powerful that an audience may miss the visuals for few moments because his eyes can be closed on their own because ears are having such a pleasure through the music. Such powerful use of music generated by string instruments is praise worthy. It touches the musical senses of an audience and carries him away on a musical tour.
Stories don’t look great part of great literature but screen play and its cinematic transformation is very good and end product is fascinating in all senses.
Film does not go for extremities in any part and if it’s a comic moment then its done so subtly and without making any noise or without taking resort in the clownish acts and only food habit of a character becomes the medium not only to establish his character but to create the laugh also among the audience.
And scene is like food being cooked on slow heat. Camera is catching the actions of a character and changing expressions on the faces of other characters present in the scene and a moment comes when hardly any audience will be spared from the laughing.
Film is the union of four different stories, The Prostitute, The Virgin, The Housewife and The Spinster. In each section or story, society wants to impose its own definition on the women but they take their own decisions in the end. Four stories cover the time span of almost twenty years starting from the year of 1946.
More about the film can be read here
The Prostitute: This part of the film is based in 1946. A prostitute has got the company of a labourer and they decide to marry and live life together. They start working on the site where a road is under construction. They sleep on the pavements on road side in the night. For them they are husband and wife and live like a couple only but for policemen, she is a prostitute and she may be lying there with her customer. A tricky situation has been produced.
People throw stones on the animals involved in sexual activities.
More and more people going to live in the cities and resting and sleeping on the road side such conditions can be produced very often and it will be happening all the time.
Couple is arrested. They try their best to explain in the court that now they are married. They have no witness to their marriage.
They don’t know the names of their parents also. They don’t have names of their villages also which could be said as the places where they basically belonged to. Worse they are illiterate kind of people who can not understand the court’s proceedings and they don’t have even proper words to explain their situations. Policemen are trying to paint them as prostitute and customer.
The Virgin: In this story film brings in the characters belonging to lower middle class people. A self dependent girl has been married to a man who has been plunged too deeply in the two attractions. One is food and second is his habit of watching cinema. He has no interest in his wife and he does not touch her in first few days and later to fulfil the social custom he takes her to her parent’s house and leaves there and go back alone.
As society has to blame woman only so she is blamed that her character is bad and that is the reason her husband has dumped her. Her parents are angry and they have an argument with the relative of her husband. Money spent on the marriage becomes the issue and when argument is stretched, bride comes out and asks her parents to stop this talk and says that her husband has already gifted her virginity as he did not touch her all these days.
The Housewife:
It is about an issueless woman. She wants the kids but she has not got one and in the past she has given birth to the dead child. One day her school time friend comes to meet her. . He had run away from the village when he was a child and he has come back to the village after so many years. They recall their old school days and man start visiting her. First he tries to enhance the intensity of her pains of being a woman who has not become a mother till now. He convinces her that it’s the lacking of her husband. He tries to lure her by reciting stories how so and so woman got the child from other man.
He makes an offer that woman should try to have a child from him as this way she will become mother and he will be able to fulfil the desire which he has been cherishing since childhood.
She is swayed away a bit by his persistent efforts but she still has bit control on her mind also.
Her husband also comes back and he shows his interest in his wife on physical level also.
Now she is in duality. She has to decide whether to go for infidelity and have a child or go for fidelity and remain a childless woman.
The Spinster:
This is the story seen most often in the society everywhere in India. A man has come to see a woman to marry her but instead he likes her younger sister who is more beautiful. Elder sister remains unmarried and she continues doing works of whole family. Her mother is worried all the time about her marriage and though her brother says he would marry after his elder sister is married but he also breaks his promise and marries.
Elder sister becomes a burden on everyone. Her mother dies and her brother shifts to other place. She is invited to live with her younger sister’s family but her own younger sister accuses her husband to have an affair with her elder sister.
Elder sister decides to go back to her parent’s house whose ownership was given to her by her mother.
She feels insulted from all sides and her self-respect is attacked. A loafer of the village who used to keep an eye on her before also makes a proposal before her to have physical relationship with her. In some weak moments she calls him.
She passes through a lot of mental conflict and ending of this story represents all the women. She decides as a woman power. She declares her freedom. She is free from any kind of bondage.
Film is deeply rooted in the atmosphere of Kerala, but Adoor Gopalakrishnan’s film has a universal appeal.
Film is quite rich in cinematography. Sound track is wonderful and performances are so good. Nandita Das plays the title role in the last story and she was the only known face for me. All the actors were unknown and set up was very local but right from the first scene I was forced to become so curious to see everything passing on the screen. Audience is transported to that women world of Adoor Gopalakrishnan. Audiences, who have never visited Kerala, become curious to know more about the characters, rituals and social customs.
What to say about direction? It’s a fine work by the master director who has made around 10 feature films only in last 36 years since the days of Swayamvaram whose few portions I had seen but without any subtitle. His research, patience and deep interest in his subject is very well reflected through the quality of the film.
I am highly curious to see all his past films. I am feeling I have been missing his beautiful cinema all these past years because of the lack of knowledge of the language in which he makes his films. DVDs were not available few years ago and now subtitled DVDs may be available and I am not going to miss any of his cinematic work, be it feature film or documentary.
Tags: Adoor Gopalakrishnan, Four women, Naalu Pennungal, nandita das, Swayamvaram, T. Shivashankar Pillai
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
Thank you for writing about this film RK. You’ve talked about all the four stories in such a simple manner yet the stories are so interesting.
I think the stories were originally written by T. Shivashankar Pillai, a very well known Malayalam writer.
Nandita Das in one of her interviews said that when Adoor called her up, she did not even ask what was the film or her role, just accepted. rightly so. Adoor on the other hand could not think of any other actress apart from ND for the role of the spinster.
A good write up RK. Yes, its the simplicity that’s most effective in Adoor’s movies. Thanks for sharing. This is my scond movie of his after Nizhalkutthu.
Adoor and jahnu barua are two direcors whose work im very eager to catch up.
Any suggestion where to find DVD’s of their work with English subtitles in Mumbai?
Interesting writeup…this is a special film, won’t call it his best yet it was subtle and sublime. People like him should be seen more and talked more often in our press.
I wrote about this movie here: http://www.cinemawithoutborders.com/news/126/ARTICLE/1605/2008-06-10.html
@Arthi V,
Its true, Film gives credit of source of stories to the TS Pillai, famous malayalam author.
It should have been a fortune for Nandia Das to work in an Adoor Gopalakrishnan’s film and her story is the longest and she gets full chance to play an interesting character. Her story is based completely on her character and she is prseent in almost all the frames in that part of the film.
@Sarang,
Thanks for your comment. Its true, transcript of the film will not give clue that its part of great literature because stories are simple and they are old, common and known problems are there in the stories but simple stories have got great visual treatment and stories have become alive.
@Ashwin,
Try Amazon also.
@Nitesh,
Thanks for sharing your very nice post on the film.
This is right that good cinema and their makers should be covered more by media but in practical life it does not happen and many artists are not even dying for this publicity. They can not fight with this trend and if they fight their creativity will be hindered, so they learn to give main focus on the creative side. an moderate success keep alive their creative journey.
Where in Delhi can I get Adoor’s films’ DVDs?
@Prabudh,
If you dont get DVDs in market then its better to check through Shri Adoor Gopalakrishnan’s own website. You may send your querry to his website also about availability of DVDs of his films in India.
http://www.adoorgopalakrishnan.in/