Tag: Fazil

In Retrospect : Steve Lopez and Kannan.

It’s not the mere presence of the name Faasil in the titles of the movies Njan Steve Lopez and Ennennum Kannettante that makes it impossible for me to think of either of them without a thought about the other tagging along. Maybe it’s that theme of unrequited love that runs in both of them, though I’m not quite sure if unrequited is actually the term that fits here. In Ennennum Kannetante, feelings are reciprocated ultimately but remain unfulfilled while when Steve finally opens up and confesses his love, it’s almost too late too. Both films deal with end of innocence and the angst and the struggles of coming to terms with the world of adults in dissimilar ways but the emotional journey of the young lead protagonists and that of the audience are not too distinct in either.

Kannan returns to his ancestral home to spend the vacation from Trivandrum of yore while Steve’s abode is Thiruvanthapuram. They might be from different eras and generations but they’re almost the same person. It’s his extended family and the dynamics of it’s rustic ecosystem that controls the fate of Kannan. Steve on the other hand thrives in the urban community where it’s mostly friends,
neighbors and the society at large that writes his destiny. At the fag end of adolescence and the cusp of adulthood, it’s naivety and pure passion that drives Kannan while it’s his idealistic yet naive world view that motivates Steve.

It was never my intention to turn this into a character study but it seems I’ve digressed and done exactly that. Ennennum Kannetante is a coming of age story and Njan Steve Lopez is a social commentary, two distinct genres while not without it’s parallels. All this said and reminisced it’s that sense of loss and longing and perhaps angst to an extent, that connects both films for me as a viewer. Perhaps maybe it’s the fact that all of us have been a Kannan or a Steve at some point in our lives.

EnnennumKannetante #NjanSteveLopez

Manichitrathazhu: In retrospect.

Flipping through channels on TV is a ritual that’s being seriously threatened by the arrival of binge watching and I was honoring this time old tradition the other day when the sight Mohanlal, Thilakan, Innocent and Nedumudi in a single frame made me stop and put the remote down. Manichitrathazhu was playing on Asianet, for the umpteenth time but I didn’t find myself complaining, rather was only too happy to sit back and watch though the film was almost close to its ending. The fear of ghosts and darkness I had outgrown as a kid, when I realized that the living were far more sinister and dangerous but Manichitrathazhu managed to stir up my fears of the unknown every time I watched it, especially the scenes where Nagavalli starts making her presence felt. I can’t decide if it’s just the visuals or the background music, maybe bit of both, in fact I’ve been told that the makers researched raagas that invoked fear for the haunting BGM that has attained cult status today.

The film needs no introduction and it has been remade in all the major regional languages but the original remains a class apart, the fact that the best minds in the Malayalam film industry came together behind and in front of the camera, being just one of the reasons why. Manichithrathazhu is what happens when a Malayali filmmaker sets his mind on making a horror-thriller for a Malayali audience, that is to just say, a thinking man’s horror film. You could rightly debate that the film is a psychological thriller and not a horror film in the true sense but then again, you didn’t know that until the end credits had rolled.

While even the most celebrated Hollywood horror movies have resorted to demonic possessions and supernatural presence to send a chill down the viewers spine, Manichitrathazhu delves into the complexities of the human psyche with a subtlety and realism that is indeed the hallmark of malayalam movies our times, notwithstanding the fact the protagonist does break into a song at the most crucial of moments in the film, but thats just our way of telling a story and I wouldn’t want it any other way either.

The movie does not attack the customs and traditions of the largely patriarchal community against the backdrop of which the story unfolds, rather it chooses an inclusive narrative, treading a middle ground where scientific methods and cultural symbols find equal footing in the progression and culmination of the tale. That the film successfully managed to scare the living daylights out of the viewers without any special effects sequences speaks volumes of the skills of Madhu Muttam, the reclusive script writer and Fazil the director, though the movie is also known for the collaborative efforts of the most successful filmmakers of the time.