Paleri Manikyam- Oru Pathira Kolapathakathinte Katha – This is what Malayalam Cinema needs!!!
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Sometimes the unexpected can really turn out to be a pleasant surprise. I have always believed in the same and keep experiencing something like this once in a while purely by default. Now recently I’ve again had the fortitude of having one such experience and that was while watching Paleri Manikyam- Oru Pathira Kolapathakathinte Katha ( Paleri Manikyam- A Midnight Murder Story, from hereon referred to as PM ). PM is a deeply moving story of someone in search of truth. One night in a village called Paleri in North Kerala (Malabar region) in the year 1957 certain incidents shattered the peace of the village and forever changed the lives of so many people living there.
That night saw the murder/death of two people- Manikyam and Bhramadattan. Manikyam was recently married to Pokkan, a dumb witted son of Cheeru- the village prostitute and Bhramadattan was a young namboothiri. Different theories abound for the deaths/murders and the police are called in to investigate. That was also the time when the 1st Communist Government in Kerala was to assume charge. So the local Communist Party members also were keenly following the case proceedings. It was being mentioned that the party helped in ensuring support to certain people suspected of foul play, the prime person being Ahmed Haji. So the investigation comes to an end after a few people are arrested and later let off due to lack of evidence.
On the same night when Paleri was shaken up by these events, a boy was born in the same village. The boy grew up listening to the tales of that shocking night and about Manikyam in particular. The boy is now Haridas a private detective and he along with Sarayu, a criminologist are now in Paleri as Haridas is now on a mission to finally put the stories to rest and find out the truth behind the events of that fateful night. With most of the people connected with the events being dead one is not clear as to the actual intentions of Haridas, but that gets cleared as the story progresses.
I go back to the first line of this post as I had mentioned the unexpected can turn out to be a pleasant surprise sometimes. To start with the movie is based on a novel of the same name by T.P Rajeevan and I have never read the same till now. I was aware that the novel and the film dealt with the first ever registered case of sexual harassment in the state. I did not really know what to expect and thus imposing faith in Mammootty and Renjith the director, I set forth to watch the movie and experience the magic in motion for myself.
This is probably one of the best personal movies that one can see. By calling it a personal movie I’m referring to the way the director enables us to move along with Haridas and experience the proceedings for ourselves. While Mammootty as Ahmed Haji is the one who will probably gain the maximum accolades (well deserved too), Mammootty as Haridas is very much essential to the plot as well as he plays the narrator for most part of the movie very effectively. Manoj Pillai’s camera lights up the natural locations so admirably that one cannot but help being wonderstruck.
Haridas and Sarayu investigating
Many a times in the early part of the movie while Haridas is taking us through Paleri and introducing characters and events to us I could distinctively feel that I was watching a play on stage. This was something I found to be very different and refreshing. For me the best part of the movie was the sequence where Haridas is narrating and you see him in the middle of the scene while to both his left and right you find a traditional boat laden with people (in the river ). But there’s a difference between both the boats, while one shows Manikyam coming home with Pokkan after the wedding, the other shows the dead body of Manikyam being taken for post mortem by the police.
Such a brilliant encapsulation of time and moments in a single frame has to be seen to be actually believed. Sharreth and Bijibal also deserve mention for their musical score which is very apt for the movie. The movie has very few well known actors (mainly Mammootty, Shweta Menon, Sreenivasan and Siddique) and most of the other actors are drawn from T.V and theatre. What is commendable is that Renjith had actually organized a talent hunt camp for the same which had more than 500 participants. It was this camp which helped Renjith choose people like Musthafa (younger Keshavan), Sreejith (Pokkan), Vijayan Nair (Velayudhan) etc who are all very effective. Both Srinivasan and Siddique as true veterans lend justice to their roles.
Shweta Menon as Cheeru balances oomph and helplessness effectively and Gowri Munjal is decent as Sarayu. As the central pivot ( Manikyam ) the debutant Mythili couldn’t have asked for a better start to her career. How do I write about this film without saying anything about Mammootty? Well after starting the year disastrously with duds like Love in Singapore, Ee Pattanathil Bootham and Daddy Cool, he has bounced back tremendously with Loud Speaker,Pazhassi Raja, Kerala Cafe ( Puram Kazhchakal ) and now PM. Whether its as Ahmed Haji,Haridas or Khalid Ahmed,Mammootty is simply superb.In fact while watching him as Ahmed Haji the cruel landlord with a weakness for women I couldn’t but help thinking of Adoor Gopalakrishnan’s Vidheyan where Mammootty was wonderfully effective as Bhaskara Pattelar, an exploitative landlord.
Renjith ( with camera ) - the master director & storyteller
Those who go to watch the movie expecting it to be a racy murder mystery would be disappointed. This is something much more than that. It stands tall as a social commentary. Even as you have certain doubts as to the way Haridas and Sarayu are shown sharing an infidel bond and also the way they are shown with their mannerisms
(Haridas is mostly seen with his Jim Beam
and Sarayu is forever smoking) as the story progresses one even is able to get the connection to all this with the main plot.Saying anything more would only spoil the experience while watching the movie and hence I wouldn’t want to elaborate further.
A story that is very much relevant even today, this is what Malayalam Cinema needs and I hope we get to see many more movies such as this one in the coming years.
Tags: Adoor Gopalakrishnan, Kerala Cafe, Loudspeaker, mammootty, Manoj Pillai, Movie Review, Paleri Manikyam, Pazhassi Raja, Renjith, Shweta Menon, Sreenivasan, T.P.Rajeevan, Vidheyan
Anurag Kashyap
Abhay Deol
Dibakar Banerjee
Hansal Mehta
Khalid Mohamed
Kundan Shah
Rahul Dholakia
Anish Kuruvilla
Jaideep Varma
Manish Gupta
Navdeep Singh
Bhavani Iyer
D. Santosh
Onir
Ashvin Kumar
Ramu Ramanathan
Sudhir Mishra
Pankaj Advani
Revathy
Saurabh Shukla
Sachin Kundalkar
Shilpa Shukla
Sujoy Ghosh
Suparn Verma
Santosh Sivan
Shashank Ghosh
Shivajee
Pavan Kaul
Partho Sen-Gupta
Prroshant Naryannan
Sam Langoria
Satish Kasetty
ohh, im just waiting for its release here in chennai. I hope it does considering the fact that it was a box office disaster ! sometimes, it tough to understand what our mallu audience wants ! They crib for quality movies and then when something comes up; they ignore it. But movies like Annan Thampi still finds its audience ! Sigh !
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Well I hope as well that it releases in Chennai.This on deserves a wide reach and acceptance.Unfortunately I wont blame the audience alone for the fate of this movie.The produers were facing a stay order in court due to some past financial issues.As a result the movie when released on 4th Dec was playing in only a few places and managed to reach all over Kerala only a week later.Also there has been some confusion about the title.I hope now with more & more people talking positively te film gets better noticed.
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I got to know a lot about Malyalam cinema by reading articles on PFC. Does they release it with subtitles?
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@ Negi- Well subtitled prints are usually screened mainly during film festivals.Otherwise commercial release is usually without subtitles.
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Keep writing more such articles…let the Malayalam films reach a wider audience!!! And i sure hope this film garners critical & commercial acclaim… ch33rs
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Sure will certainly continue doing so.hope you had a great time @ IFFK’09.
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hi sethu good to see atleast someone is talking for mallu movies…being a mallu we still talk about the good old pappettan and bharathan movies,n all the laletan-srinivasan-sathyan anthikad & pryan movies(am in nz). sad to see the downfall of malayalam movies over the years….saw brahmaram today……lalettan is superb in the movie…but at times i felt it a bit melodramatic.wondering when can we get a movie like black friday or Dev D in malayalam.keeping writting bro……
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@ tedanton- So do you manage to get Malayalam movie DVD’s in NZ?Bhramaram is one of the better movies this year.Lets hope we get to see more good movies in 2010.
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na thanks to internet…..movies get posted in some sites…happened to see doctor patient today…couldnt stand for more than 10 mts… i cam to know that veven that dude jayasurya has big fans assn n alll…lets hope some good movies come in 2010…hey watch the hurt locker if you havnt seen,its a really good movie
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Yet to see The Hurt Locker,its on my pending list.Doctor Patient is pure torture fest
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Hey sethu.. thnx for the valuable review. Even rediff had given it a good rating. I was wondering why it didnt do well at the box office.. esp in Kerala where good movies always get a good response. Neways.. me too waiting for the chennai release. Hope to see it soon.
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@ Siva- glad you liked it.Refer one of my previous comments on probably why the movie didnt get a good response in Kerala.
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Sethu, this is what exactly , Malayalam cinema needs.This is one of the best film of the year.Hats of to Renjith, he is hope for Malyalam cinema.
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dude wat about the new releases chatampinadu n ivide swargmanu are they good?
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Chattambinadu is a mass masala movie – so far the opening is good.Its in the Rajamanikkam mould.Ivide Swargamaanu is pretty decent.Lal ettan is restrained and Roshan Andrews has done well enough especially in the climax which is hilarous.Good supporting cast as well.
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Hi Sethu,
Wonderful review. Thanks for that.
Both Lal and Mammooty tend to do a lot of movies a year, but i think it is one movie like this every year or 2 which makes it worth having them around. They do a lot of movies every year because the industry is still riding on their shoulders.
Thanks,
Dhiraj Ramakrishnan
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Sethuetta,
You did it again… This film deserves wider exposure. Thanks for writting this. Now, go & watch Neelathamara… I was personally disappointed by it. But, have to say that Lal Jose has a knack of making even average stuff look classy.
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I just got back from India, having spent 3 weeks at home in Kerala and watched just 2 movies during my entire stay. One was “Rocket Singh”, which I’m glad I caught. The other was that monstrosity called “Pazhassi Raja”!! I tried to convince the folks I went with to check out “Oru Pathira…” instead of PR but they would not have it. I think at the end we all agreed anything could have been better that Pazhassi!
I know this discussion in not on Pazhassi but having seen a Malayalam film after a long gap, I am just amazed at how tacky and silly an expensive Malayalm film with big names attached to it looks. What’s with the outrageous costumes and wigs? And British “actors” who appear to have been picked up from Kovalam beach?!
Seriously man, is this the evolution of mainstream Malayalam films? It looks like they are trying to please the Rajani fanboys now. The alternative is not too promising either with all the sidey Dileep and Jayaram starrers (“My Big Father”??!). Man oh man!
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I think the relationship between sarayu and hari das, which is again outside wedlock, is like saying that even Hari is the son of Ahmed Haji…. as they say “Vithu gunam Pathu gunam”
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I didn’t get a chance to see the movie in theaters as it was not a theatre block buster. However I bought the DVD and see the moovie on last Sunday. Thanks to Ranjith,I think this is the one I am searching in Malayalam. I still feeling the cry of Manickam in my ears. Fortunately or unfortunately I read an article regarding this moovie in one DYFI magazine “Yuvadhara” stated that it is anti-communist, anti – Islam and co- fudelist and I am wondered what happened these marxists. Now they started to oppose every thing they don’t like.
I googled few reports regarding this cenema, found yours. Good but few comments-agreeing Mammooty is best but the charactor Sarayu is not up to the mark. Another remarkable acting is Ms Shwetha Menon, she really deserves the state award and she gained that. Camera, direction, every thing is superb.
Finally, I am expecting your view regarding Mr P K Poker’s crticism and other marxist leaders comments related to this movie and T P Rajeevan’s novel.
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