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Release date:
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December 22, 2017
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Director:
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Aashiq Abu
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Cast:
Language:
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Aishwarya Lekshmi, Tovino Thomas, Leona Lishoy
Malayalam
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“Sex is not a
promise.” I cannot believe I just heard these words from a heroine in a
mainstream Mollywood venture. Aparna Ravi a.k.a. Aps in Mayaanadhi (Mystic
River) is a far cry from
the coy virgins of past Indian films for whom sex was usually a mistake that
almost inevitably led to a pregnancy.
This is not to say
that other women in Malayalam films – or Indian cinema at large – have not
gotten between the sheets with heroes in the past. Just this year, one of the
most comical sequences in Angamaly Diaries involved a woman visiting the
male protagonist in hospital to offer more than just sympathy. Their sexual
escapades were designed as a source of amusement though, and the woman in
question was not the heroine. In too many other Indian films, sex between a
leading man and woman who are not married to each other has become a sort of
mandatory signifier of coolth used by conservative filmmakers to mask their
conservatism and/or establish how with-it they are. Exhibit No. 1: Aditya
Chopra’s painfully self-conscious “look at me, look how progressive I am” Befikre from Bollywood in 2016. Exhibit No. 2: Mani Ratnam’s aiming-to-be-modern but
ultimately conformist O Kadhal Kanmani from Kollywood in 2015.
Hear this, dear
Indian filmmakers: showing your heroine having sex is not an indicator of your
film’s liberalism, giving your heroine agency is. The difference between
aspiring to be feminist on this front (or faking it) and genuine conviction is
in evidence in Mayaanadhi.
Aashiq Abu’s new
film stars Aishwarya Lekshmi as Aparna and Tovino Thomas as her on-again,
off-again boyfriend John Matthew a.k.a. Mathan. Aparna is an acting aspirant
who has been earning a living by emceeing and modelling while she works towards
a break in films. Mathan was her senior in college and is now a professional
racketeer. Each has a challenging family background, his is far more troubling
than hers.
Mayaanadhi is a romance
disguised as a crime thriller. When the curtain goes up, a series of events
unfold that force Mathan into hiding. While he stays low key to escape the
police, the film explores his long-standing relationship with Aparna, which is
now in the doldrums since she no longer trusts him for reasons that are
completely his fault.
Aparna is a bright,
determined, professionally ambitious woman who knows her mind in all matters
except Mathan. They have been friends as much as lovers – a magical combination
that is hard to recover from. Though her head tells her he spells trouble, she
remains as fond of him as she is attracted to him. The film stays with them as
he desperately tries to get her back in his life while she is torn between her
affection for him and her desire to get over him.
There is so much to
recommend in Mayaanadhi. The attractive Aishwarya Lekshmi, for one, a
model-turned-actor who is effortlessly glamorous on screen. She made her film
debut earlier this year in the only awkwardly written passage in the otherwise
excellent Njandukalude Nattil Oridavela. In Mayaanadhi she is
handed a vast canvas and wonderfully nuanced writing to display her
considerable acting chops.
Tovino Thomas has
had a year that most actors can only dream of. If in Oru Mexican Aparatha
he was a gritty and grim political activist, in Godha he was a
man-child, and here in Mayaanadhi we get the full
blast of his versatility as he aces Mathan’s irresistible boyish charm and
longing for his Aps.
(Spoiler alert) That scene in which
Mathan lightly accuses Aparna of “talking like a prostitute” and instantly
regrets his words is a fine example of great writing meeting great acting. Her
reply, in sharp contrast to his unevolved reaction to their rendezvous,
reminded me of Shruti’s response in the morning-after scene in Band Baaja
Baaraat (Hindi, 2010) in which Bittoo expresses regret for their sexual
encounter, as if it is a catastrophe that he as a man must take responsibility
for. (Spoiler alert ends)
For its
non-traditionalism, smooth flow, credible characters and situations and so much
else, the true stars of Mayaanadhi are director Aashiq Abu and his
frequent collaborators, writers Syam Pushkaran and Dileesh Nair. Their lead
pair come across as real people with real dilemmas. Neither of them is
flawless, but unlike in most commercial Indian cinema, the man’s mess-ups in
the relationship are not casually justified or glorified. And it is a joy to
see a woman who is strong but not in a cliched filmi fashion: her strength is
believably human and not divine.
Team Mayaanadhi draws us into Aparna and
Mathan’s story so effectively that we ache for them. The film’s atmospherics
are compelling. DoP Jayesh Mohan ensures that Mayaanadhi is visually
exquisite. His colour palette is dominated by whites, blacks and steely grays
in the outdoors, almost as if Kerala in this film is experiencing an icy
winter it never does in reality. This cinematographic choice serves to build up
a sense of immense sadness and a feeling of foreboding around the fate of
Aparna and Mathan’s romance.
There is also a
largeness and grandeur to his outdoor frames, but the director’s narrative
style is such that when Aparna and Mathan are together on screen, nothing
matters but these two. He also wisely eschews song and dance numbers that are
characteristic of commercial Indian cinema. Nothing, absolutely nothing,
is allowed to distract from the ruminative mood of the narrative and the
twosome around whom it revolves.
Till the interval,
I remember being curious about the mystery behind the crimes we witness in the
film’s opening scenes. Those questions recede into the background by the second
half, by which time I found myself more preoccupied with what to expect for
Aparna and Mathan as a couple.
There are plenty of
other people around them, including some characters with stories that are
striking even though their time on screen is limited. The actor Sameera played
by Leona Lishoy, her autocratic brother (Soubin Shahir) and Aparna’s
emotionally needy mother all leave an impression, yet somehow the film
seems mysteriously depopulated. This is the most remarkable aspect of Mayaanadhi: Abu builds his narrative in
such a way that his satellite characters are not neglected but his lead couple
are lost in their own thoughts and their own world, and I found myself lost in
them.
This is what gives Mayaanadhi its fine balance between
being relatable and yet being an epic romance. It is a befitting December release
in a year that has witnessed some great works from Malayalam cinema.
Rating
(out of five stars): ****
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CBFC Rating (India):
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UA
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Running time:
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136 minutes
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This
review has also been published on Firstpost:
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