REVIEW 744: NALPATHIYONNU (41)

Release date:	November 8, 2019
Director:	Lal Jose
Cast: Language:	Biju Menon, Nimisha Sajayan, Dhanya Ananya, Saran Jith, Indrans, Suresh Krishna Malayalam

Kicking off a religion-versus-rationalism debate is a risky business at any given time, more so now when skins in India have gotten thinner than they have ever been since Partition and temperatures are on the rise. Fear of causing offence does not stop veteran director Lal Jose from selecting this theme although it does seem to hold him back from offering a full-blown critique of religion in Nalpathiyonnu (41), as he tests the atheism of a senior Communist in Kerala by sending him on a pilgrimage to Sabarimala.

Biju Menon plays that party member, Ullaaskumar, a teacher from rural Kerala where locals debate whether their place of residence, Chekkunnu, got its name from Che Guevara or Lord Shiva.

Ullaas is committed to his atheism, but it is twice tested during the course of this narrative: once through his romance with his student Bhagyam whose family are devout Hindus, and later when his organisation virtually coerces him to join his party colleague Kannan on a trip to Sabarimala. That a Communist set-up would show any commitment to religion may seem unconvincing, but this one has its reasons. Getting Ullaas to accompany Kannan to the Ayyappa shrine is the party’s desperate solution to the latter’s alcoholism: they are hoping that Ullaas’ monitoring will force Kannan to stick to the gruelling 41-day vratham – no meats, no alcohol or other intoxicants, no sex and so on – demanded of those hoping to have a darshan of the deity.

Lal Jose and writer P.G. Prageesh roll out their story in slice-of-life form, weaving in everyday insights about small-town life and party politics as they go along. Some of it is humourous and endearing, some of it contrived and clichéd. Like the scene in which Ullaas is caught in a bind that can be seen coming from a mile and then becomes tongue-tied.

The treatment of the relationship between Ullaas and Bhagyam (Nimisha Sajayan) too feels dated. A young woman chasing a reluctant hero played by a much older star is a ruse many filmmakers have used to establish the attractiveness of that male star. The seemingly liberal Jose’s decision to not pair Menon with a female actor his own age is a measure of the low value attached to romantic overtures by an older woman and of the ageism in casting that women face in cinema, more so in Mollywood a.k.a. the Malayalam film industry where the average age difference between older male stars and their female romantic partners on screen is 20-30 years, as if to suggest that this is routine in real life. The Nimisha Sajayan-Suraj Venjaramoodu pairing in Dileesh Pothan’s Thondimuthalum Driksakshiyum just about passed muster on this front, but Menon, loveable as he is, looks like Sajayan’s Daddy.

That said, through Ullaas’ dilemmas, Nalpathiyonnu does make some interesting observations about the challenge of being opposed to religion when your loved ones are culturally and socially rooted in it. It also features a far better written, far more convincing man-woman relationship: the one Kannan shares with his wife Suma.

Menon plays Ullaas with the natural ease that is his defining characteristic as an artiste. Sajayan is wasted in a marginal role that seems unworthy of an actor who already has Thondimuthalum Driksakshiyum and Eeda to her credit. The supporting cast playing their relatives and associates are competent. But the scene stealers in this film are Dhanya Ananya as Suma and Saran Jith as Kannan, the former managing to impress although she gets much less screen time than the latter.

Unlike the recent Sathyam Paranja Vishwasikkuvo?, one does not end the film wondering why on earth this woman likes this no-hoper. By the end of Nalpathiyonnu, we know.

Dhanya Ananya and Saran Jith along with S. Kumar’s cinematography – aimed not so much at showcasing Kerala’s beauty as at capturing the ruminative mood of the narrative – are the USPs of this film.

If Nalpathiyonnu does not have the fire and grit that would be expected from an exploration of such a potentially powerful theme, it is largely because of what comes across as a hesitation to truly critique the irrationality of faith. If Jose and Prageesh were afraid they would be accused of lacking objectivity, they could have additionally examined the insensitivity that some atheists direct at religionists, but both groups are spared an unsparing microscope.

This reluctance combined with loose editing results in a film that works only in parts, is thoughtful but just not enough, lacks punch and ends up being ambivalent. It makes you wonder why a filmmaker would pick such a subject in the first place if the intention was not to go the whole hog.

Rating (out of five stars): **1/2

CBFC Rating (India):	U
Running time:	134 minutes )

This review has also been published on Firstpost:

https://www.firstpost.com/entertainment/nalpathiyonnu-41-movie-review-lal-jose-takes-a-communist-to-sabarimala-but-plays-it-safe-from-then-on-7629691.html 

Visuals courtesy: https://www.facebook.com/LaljoseFilmDirector/

REVIEW 523: VELIPADINTE PUSTHAKAM

Release date:	August 31, 2017
Director:	Lal Jose
Cast: Language:	Mohanlal, Anoop Menon, Reshma Rajan, Arun Kurian, Sarath Kumar, Salim Kumar, Priyanka Nair, Chemban Vinod Jose, Siddique, Shivaji Guruvayoor, Alencier Ley Lopez, Vijay Babu as himself Malayalam

Velipadinte Pusthakam (The Book of Revelation) a.k.a. Apocalypse is the last – most intriguing – book in The Bible. It is a befuddling piece of writing attributed by some to St John the apostle of Jesus, and has divided scholars for centuries.

Lal Jose’s film of the same name is neither as esoteric nor as confounding as the title suggests. It marks the stalwart’s first team-up with one of Malayalam cinema’s biggest superstars.

Mohanlal here plays a professor whose arrival at a Christian college in a coastal fishing town marks a turning point in its troubled existence. Caste tensions run high among the students, with the children of poor fisherfolk being taunted for their humble background while the well-off lot are in turn mocked as rejects from more prestigious educational institutions. Violence between these groups is rampant when Lalettan’s character, Michael Idiculla, enters the picture.

He is an unconventional teacher and a compassionate human being who finds ways to encourage the poorer kids, demystify their lives in the minds of their financially fortunate classmates, and bring all warring sides together. However, when he suggests a fund-raising project to be executed entirely by the staff and students, the story takes unexpected turns, and we end up discovering far more than he might have wished to reveal about himself while simultaneously, and accidentally, figuring out the truth behind a crime that once rocked the town.

Parallel to these present-day happenings, we are told a tale from the past, of Vishwan (played by Anoop Menon), the man accused of his murder (Siddique) and the one who went to prison for it (Chemban Vinod Jose).

The film opens with a vicious fight on a rainy night years ago. The revelations in Velipadinte Pusthakam are the truth behind that clash as much as Idiculla’s truth.

These discoveries are not as earth-shattering as they are made out to be by their positioning in the storyline and the tone in which they’re told, but they add up to a reasonably entertaining film. 

Velipadinte Pusthakam packs a lot into its 157 minutes – a mystery, mental illness, casteism, even a brief mention of male supremacy. Writer Benny P. Nayarambalam skims over most of these themes though, pivoting the narrative entirely around the hero and the whodunnit.

So don’t go looking for insights on most of these subjects. Mental health, for instance, is merely a device to further the thriller element in the film. This becomes forgivable, I guess, if you consider that at least Velipadinte Pusthakam does not perpetuate specific myths about the disorder it references, unlike so many mainstream Indian films.

The mention of caste in the story is well-intentioned, even if simplistic and risk-averse. Deep-seated prejudices are easily forgotten when the hero waves his magic wand over the community. And in the opening scenes when student gangs headed by the boys Franklin (Sarath Kumar) and Sameer (Arun Kurian) are being chided by the principal (Shivaji Guruvayoor), their discussion neatly apportions equal blame to both groups, no doubt to avoid offending relatively privileged castes who dominate the audience.

Still, the conversation – flawed though it is – is a reminder that southern Indian cinema, at the very least, acknowledges the existence of caste oppression (many films here do more than just that), unlike the Brahminical worldview pervading the north’s biggest film industry, Bollywood.

If the equation between the students had been further explored, Velipadinte Pusthakam would have had greater depth. One particularly memorable sidelight involves a boy apologising to a female collegemate for his voyeuristic behaviour. It is such a pleasure to see a college campus in a Malayalam film where male misdemeanours are not trivialised or normalised.

Unfortunately, the students are sidelined once Idiculla walks in (considerably late in the opening half, I must point out), and Velipadinte Pusthakam shifts to being his story from theirs. This is the film’s loss, somewhat like how Taare Zameen Par might have suffered if, upon Aamir Khan’s late arrival on the scene, it had become the tale of Nikumbh Sir rather than little Ishaan.

The decision to marginalise the students is one of several poorly conceived aspects of the writing. Another is the Christian clergy’s official endorsement of Vishwan despite the violent methods he would use to do good. While it is conceivable that the clergy might offer behind-the-scenes support to such a man because he helped them, the very public stance they take here in his favour – going to the extent of hanging his picture on the college wall, between the photographs of bishops – defies believability in much the same way as if Mahatma Gandhi had erected Bhagat Singh’s statue at a monument to ahimsa.

Inevitably, at one point a good-looking young woman expresses interest in marrying Michael Idiculla. This is the primary purpose served by the presence in the story of the teacher Mary, played by the charismatic Reshma Rajan from Angamaly Diaries. A conversation she has with another teacher about the age difference is hardly a saving grace, when you consider how superfluous this aside is in the script, and how silly, no different from the young housemaid’s effort to flirt with Mohanlal’s character Jayaraman in last year’s Oppam.

It’s funny – and sad – that Lalettan’s directors feel compelled to remind us that he continues to be attractive to handsome young women, as if that, and not his talent, is the measure of his hero-worthiness. Is this their definition of masculinity? Does it reveal too the star’s insecurity and his discomfort with his advancing years? Perhaps this is the velipad (revelation) of Lalettan’s filmography of the past couple of decades. Thankfully this daft interlude in the film is brief.

As it happens, Velipadinte Pusthakam is done in by its excessive awareness of Mohanlal’s stardom. Potentially interesting characters such as Sameer, Franklin and Franklin’s feisty lady friend are pushed aside, and a striking actress like Rajan is reduced to being a showpiece, all to maintain the male megastar’s primacy.

Not surprisingly, as is the case with too many commercial Malayalam films, women are hardly significant to the proceedings. While this is routine in Mollywood, it is particularly noticeable here because Idiculla asks a specific question about male dominance in a classroom one day.

Be that as it may, Lal Jose manages to keep Velipadinte Pusthakam moderately appealing with incremental doses of information about Idiculla and Vishwan. This is not a spectacular thriller, but the suspense is mildly engaging, Shaan Rahman’s music and DoP Vishnu Sarma’s visuals of the seaside location are pretty at all times, and the acting uniformly competent.

If the director had not been so conscious of Mohanlal’s stardom, he may have done a better job of tapping the actor in him. As it is, Lalettan is fair enough and Velipadinte Pusthakam is a more worthwhile Onam offering than the week’s other new release starring the other Big M of Mollywood.

Rating (out of five stars): **

CBFC Rating (India):	U
Running time:	157 minutes

This review has also been published on Firstpost:

http://www.firstpost.com/entertainment/velipadinte-pusthakam-movie-review-mohanlal-does-a-fair-job-in-a-film-thats-too-conscious-of-his-stardom-4003619.html

Poster courtesy: https://www.facebook.com/VelipadintePusthakam/