When the cliche ‘a classic movie’ is used anywhere to describe a movie the first things that come to my mind are a flawless screenplay,behavior of the actors(not acting, behaving), visual beauty of the frames, zero exaggeration of events in the movie and a compact portrayal of events by the director. Our beloved Malayalam film industry has given us a lot of classical movies from the ultra realistic Aravindan and Adoor movies to the fantasy driven interpretations of Mahabharatha and Kerala folk stories by M.T.
The newest entry in the so called list of classics, they say is Pazhassi Raja. Being a hardcore keralite and a Malayalam movie lover I was very much excited about this project especially because of the Hariharan - M.T.- Mammooty trio and a mammoth budget by the modest standards of Malayalam film industry. But after watching the movie my first reaction was a very big disappointment. Disappointed, because it never looked like an M.T. script, because Mammooty was only a shadow of his old self, because of the embellishment of events with zilch reason and at last a stream less presentation of events by the director. Hats off to Venu and Ramnath Shetty for a valiant but unsuccessful attempt to save the show with some world class cinematography.
The film starts with a meeting involving landlords and British discussing the issue of taxation. The name Kerala Varma Pazhassi Raja and his heroics strike your eardrums hard through the depiction given by Nambiar, played by Devan to the British.The introduction scene of Pazhassi Raja in which he is shown as coming from darkness to the enthralling radiance of Nilavillaku rocketed my expectations and adrenalin to sky level. But the screenwriter and director completely misses the plot after this riveting introduction of one of the greatest warriors of Kerala. Soon the film plummets in to the ditch of stereotypes and melodrama with over dramatization and recurrence of events. The homogeneity of the story line with repetition of events in different situations is the thing which annoys you the most. From the beginning to the end the only things happening in the movie are
1) Pazhassi Raja being hunted by the British.
2) Thallakkal Chandu(Manoj K.Jayan) and Edachenna Kunkan(Sharath Kumar) helping their boss out of the hassles with their heroics (some poorly choreographed stunts).
3) Some melodramatic scenes between Kerala Varma and his wife Kaitheri Maakam (Kaniha ).
4) Death of one of Kerala Varma’s subordinates.
Repetition of these events as a cycle in different circumstances from start to end, till the death of Pazhassi Raja is what Pazhassi Raja is all about.The makers may argue, that they were trying to be true to history.Making a documentary would have been a much better option if the writer was trying to be candid to history.With such a weak storyline (even if it is truthful to the core to history) Pazhassi Raja was never a material for movie making.Filmmakers who have directed classic historical and biographical movies have selected subjects which had cinematic substance in it, Mel Gibson’s 'Braveheart' (same genre as Pazhassi Raja), Roman Polanski’s 'The Pianist' and even 'Oru Vadakkan Veeragatha' was fantastic in that respect.That is why these films remain in our hearts as classics. May be M.T. was too lazy writing the script of this movie that he did it without any research. Then what about the dramatization of events? Being true to history and dramatization of events doesn’t go together. The film Pazhassi Raja will always be remembered as the weakest script by the great M.T.Vasudevan Nair.
Mammooty, the epitome of Muslim consciousness in Kerala, who was never more than an above average close up shot actor, rocketed to undeserving heights by the Muslim youth in Kerala fails miserably in his portrayal of Kerala Varma Pazhassi Raja .In a period war film, the most important thing that captures your mind is the body language of the actors rather than facial expressions. Brad Pitt in 'Troy' , Charlten Hearston in his bible movies, Mel Gibson in 'Braveheart' and Hrithik Roshan in 'JodhaAkbar' fascinated us with their invincible body language. But our grand old Mammooty was not even able to walk like the 35 year old roaring rebel of North Kerala. His action scenes were pathetically appalling.The director was forced to use close up shots in all action sequences involving Mammooty to veil his abject body language.This affected the exquisiteness of action sequences choreographed by Ravi Dewan (JodhaAkbar fame). If you were trying to make a classic war film, why you were using a 60 years old actor, who cant even walk properly to play a 35 year old ultra vigorous rebel. The result is a dud which you can’t show anywhere outside Kerala.The only thing you can do is to satisfy your Malayalee complex, which reflects in all his activities, by calling it a world classic.
A lot of directorial blunders can be pointed out in the movie, the use of English accent Malayalam by Neeli an Adivasi girl, played by Padmapriya is the biggest gaffe you can make as a director. Illaiyaraja’s music is also below par. Some characters and incidents in the movie doesn’t even have a proper conclusion. Padmapriya’s character is an example. All the action sequences in the movie are third rate versions of Movies like Crouching Tiger and Troy. Mammooty’s attempt to copy Brad Pitt’s famous on the run kill scene from Troy is an awfully sympathetic scene. Mr. Mammooty please stop trying things which you can’t do. It’s a miserable sight to see a Malayalee actor becoming a joker by attempting unfeasible tasks.
There are some bright spots in the movie like cinematography, sound mixing, art direction and some exceptional performances from Sarath Kumar and Manoj K.Jayan.
Overall the movie is a letdown which can easily be ignored. It can be called a high budget 'ThuruppuGulan'.
