Ore Kadal (2007) is not to be missed!
Again, big thanks to in flight entertainment which helped me discover this movie. As I was surfing through the choices, a few things made me choose this one. One, a mention that this was an award winning movie. Second, the fact that it was a Malayalam movie and I had for some time wanted to explore their cinema. Third, Mammooty’s star presence guaranteed a certain level of classiness at least in the acting department and Fourth, the short synopsis of the movie which promised a story about an extra-marital affair between a frustrated housewife and a self-centered but brilliant economist. Well made films on such topics in Indian Cinema are few and far between and it didn’t take me long to settle in.
First impressions in any movie, in my opinion are not made by the acting or direction, those take a bit longer to seep in. It’s the writing, editing and the camerawork that can catch you by the balls in the first couple of minutes and ‘Ore Kadal’ excels in that department as it opens very strongly with some excellent dialogues between Mammooty and Ramya Krishnan as they debate whether Mammooty should go to the side of his aunt who has been asking for him on her deathbed. This initial exchange sets the tone of the drama and the cerebral level of thoughts that the movie is going to indulge in. Immediately we also catch glimpses of the other main protagonists, Meera Jasmine who is worried about her sick child and her husband played by Jayakumar who is desperately looking to land a job to support his family. The intellectual, social and economic gulf cannot be wider between Meera Jasmine and Mammooty whose only tenuous connection seems to be their chance meeting in the elevator of their apartment.
And it is here that the director takes over, teasing the audience and delays the inevitable. No, in fact the first exchange between Mammooty and Meera is completely off-screen as we realize that the director has shortchanged us when he shows us a shot of Mammooty taking Meera and her son to the hospital in his car. He is gruff, indignant about helping his neighbor in an act the reason for which he struggles to explain to Ramya Krishnan, his friend and confidante. His lover too maybe? We are never told.
Mammooty is fully in command of his character and role. He brings the right dose of an academic’s confidence and righteousness in speech and theory along with the amateur’s lack of comprehension when confronted with the fact that he might have destroyed a life through his very insensitive nature. But it is Meera Jasmine who steals the show with her coy advances into Mammooty’s life. Her brazen determination to move into a desperate affair with a self-proclaimed misogynist to liberate herself from a life which she feels she doesn’t deserve. Her quiet dignity in the face of Mammooty’s expositions on love, lust, companionship and sin. Her guilt as she is left to face a life in the company of her caring husband and the birth of her daughter whose life seems to her to be a constant accusation on her emotional investment in relationship which would eventually leave her mentally scarred.
Ramya and Jayakumar play able foils to the main characters. I must say that I was confused with how the director handled Jayakumar’s character. In the beginning of the movie, he is shown as someone who is manipulative, narrow minded and even uncaring, if one were not charitable. But in the second half, he is the model husband, patient, caring and steady. The transformation is not explained except for the fact there is economic security for Jayakumar in the second half. A too convenient and implausible reason for change in character, perhaps? Also Ramya’s character should have been limited to being a mystery woman. I wish the director had not digressed into telling us about her life experiences. I was happy to accept Ramya the way she was- proud, confident and a rebel without explanations. God knows we need more such portrayals of women in our cinema.
But just as we are wondering if the Shyamaprasad, the director, has lost the thread of the narrative, he brings it all back together in a stirring climax. As Meera and Mammooty lie in each other’s arms proclaiming their undeniable love for each other, Meera son makes his way into their presence. While Meera is suddenly confronted with her everyday reality, Mammooty reaction is more inclusive and understanding as he hugs her son. The final shots showing Meera’s daughter making her way up the stairs trying to find her mother and brother is a classic way to end the movie leaving inevitable questions hanging in the air.
Tags: Malayalam, Mammooty, Meera Jasmine, Shyamaprasad
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
Its pure joy to see Mammootty swagger and sway as the eccentric Dr. Nathan… Only this actor can pull of this one and a Rajamanikyam back to back with equal ease …
Syamaprasads narrative is dramatic, still the dialogues do justice to the cause… Especially those conversations Ramya Krishnan and Mammootty have throughout the film, give us an insight into the mind of otherwise inaccessible Nathan… She, in essence is the audiences doorway to troubled sea with Nathan…
Meera, was awesome and beautiful as the naive, love-lorn young girl… An amazing film.. This, not Agnisakshi, is Shyamaprasad’s best film till date….
I haven’t seen any of his other films. Will look out for Agnisakshi.
Ore kadal no sure was a wonderful movie. It is not surprising that Ouseppachan won an award for his music in the film, which had a wonderful track including the haunting and melodious “Yamuna veruthe padunnu”.
I personally consider Akale (At a distance) Shyamaprasad’s adaptation of Tennessee williams Glass menagerie as his best work to date. I was quite elevated by Ore kadal while I watched it with it’s beautiful picturesque and haunting BGM. But, sadly I realized that the film does not grow beyond whatever was already in there. It does not stay in you, barring a few moments. Like the moment when camera immediately shifts to Nathan taking Deepthi to the hospital, the story teller’s interventions into the script via Ramya krishnan’s crisp and instantaneous one-liners, the most catchy was about the man who gets hurt by the woman, The psychologist played by Risabawa asking Deepthi “who taught you of the rights and the wrongs”, and the little child climbing up the twirling stairs.
Unfortunately, I couldn’t enjoy the music fully in the flight but to its credit I never felt like forwarding the movie during the montages.
I agree, in the second half, the film stutters for a bit and I remember being irritated by Mammotty expository lines. I felt like telling the director- “I got his character. Just show me what he does rather than his incessant talking about the way he is.”
I loved the small erotic touches in the movie along with the lyrical dialogues. Like when Mammooty compares the nape of Meera’s neck to a conch shell and camera lingers and flits about it poetically and dramatically…
Yes Ousepachhan famously composed all the songs in the film using the same carnatic raga ‘Shubapanthuvarali’ like Pranaya Sandhya, Nagaram, Yamuna Veruthe … Even the background score was engrossing and of the highest order…
I have seen Akale in parts and liked what I saw… Geethu was intriguing… but never got a chance to see it in full… Agnisakshi and especially Kallukondoru Pennu were less effective for me as aginst this one..
Hey! D&C glad you liked the movie.It is certainly one of the better Malayalam movies in recent times.Performances by lead cast and the music by Ouseppachan are certainly good indeed.Sorry to nitpick but Meera Jasmine’s husband in the movie is played by Narain- I guess you are refering to Jayakumar his character’s name in the movie.
one of my very good frd suggested this one..I was really interested as it is based on a novel by Bengali writer Sunil Ganguli…I have this movie..but looking for subtitle..
Any idea where I can get one?
You can buy the DVD from Moser Baer online. I had bought it there and it has subtitles.
I’m clearly flying on the wrong airlines!
What a nice surprise to find this commentary here that evokes this movie so well, I saw it at a film festival in the US when it was new, and it made a strong impression on me, but it was not released here as far as I know so I’ve heard/read little about it.
Two years later what has stayed with me is both the writing and Mammooty’s powerful performance of that character. I think it’s not easy to create a cerebral kind of guy who actively opposes emotional life — why go visit your dying aunt who wants to see you? no good reason — and sustain the audience’s interest in him and even our sympathy for him.
And then for what it’s worth, I definitely thought Mammootty and Ramya Krishnan had a sexual but cool, non-romantic relationship – in my memory, the first scene has them chatting in bed – but this is my own psychological imagery probably, and not the movie’s, unless you saw a cleaned-up airplane version!!
I agree with you about the relationship that Mammooty and Ramya Krishnan share in the movie and I liked the fact that their sexual intimacy, if any, was not dwelled upon…