At long last I got a chance to watch this movie glorifying a quite unknown name in the list of Indian revolutionaries. Pazhassi Raja, that’s quite a name, isn’t it? This movie has created quite a hype in recent times which is quite unprecedented for Malayalam movies. Malayalam movies are still a fiefdom by itself ruled by a set of actors who have been in the trade for more than 2 decades now. They have been supplying heroines across borders recently, however, as far as hype and scale goes, they still don’t make enough noise. So, when this movie suddenly broke that barrier, I got really curious. Mainly because, there have been many cases of movies with huge hype around them going down in their fizz quotient.
And the verdict---- well it is a resounding win for the team which made this movie. The effort which has gone into making this movie is commendable and it definitely is a movie to watch in today’s era of pop corn movies which are as good as pop corn. What are pop corn movies? Well, You munch it, it gets inside, causes some gas trouble rather than quenching hunger, only making you a bit more thirstier to drink more cola which accentuates the gas trouble.
This movie is definitely a Big screen movie to be watched on the big screen rather than the idiot boxes. There are larger than life characters, Stars to fuel these characters, a vast landscape to capture the movie’s events, wars, dialogues, villainy, huge sets and many of the stalwarts of Malayalam movie industry are present in some way or the other.
The movie etches out the story of a revolutionary in Kerala who fought the British subjugation and fell victim to treachery and deceit of his kith and kin.
I won’t go into the story of the movie ‘cos, it might just steal the thunder for many who want to watch the movie. Moreover, the story doesn’t have the traditional flow of Malayalam movies. Focus being on technological finesse and other figments of Big screen movie, the flow of the movie suffers. Unfortunately there are other sequences like battles and songs which lend to the commercial appeal and take greater screen space than the actual story. It’s a difficult line to toe for the director between commercial cinema and the art part of things. Certain scenes start abruptly and end abruptly too sometimes. Suddenly a battle springs up when the Englishman yells- “We are going to squash them” or something of that sort. A battle ensues and suddenly another scene heavy with dialogues comes next. It must have been a tough job for the editing dept.
However, the movie revels in its picturisation, the sets, the photography, music, stunts, sound and performances. It’s really a treat to watch the scenes in lush green forests. The camera angles and shots are amazingly very un-malayali. There is a scene where a horse wades through water and comes out of the other end. Its captured in slow motion and has been done really well as the scene comes up when there is a decisive moment in Pazhassi Raja’s rebellion. The horse symbolizes the want for freedom.
The actors could have done a bit more. Most of the characters are supposed to be grim, being a period movie and the actors who don these characters also remain so. It makes the characters redundant with each one looking no different than the other. Women cry and the heroine gets a duet while on the other hand men fight, die, plot and are always serious.
Mamootty, however, revels in his role (let me clarify that am a Mohan Lal fan J). I have heard my friends and many other say Sarath Kumar essayed his role much better than Mamootty. I must admit Edachena Chandu does pack a punch in the movie and Sarath Kumar fits in perfectly there with his imposing physique and personality. However, I will still vote for Mamootty here primarily because of the difference he brings to the proceedings. He is not the angry Chandu of “Oru vadakkan veeragatha” where emotions run high all along. Here he is more brain than brawn. He devises plans and knows his strengths and allows his lieutenants to do the fighting and battle winning. He is much more poised and calm. This definitely is a huge difference he brings to the otherwise grim faced guys in each frame. The best part of course was the dialogue delivery. I simply loved the dialogues he had. Nobody could have delivered it any better. It’s also commendable that Mamootty doesn’t try to be a superhero here. The character is larger than life but he treats it with considerable poise not trying to do many things just concentrating on his strengths of dialogue delivery and screen presence. The stunts are not that great and technology comes to the rescue for him here. There are certain places where he tries to mouth English which are again a bit overboard. However, the biggest plus was the calmness and the cool demeanor which Mamootty adopts. He is at ease with his character which seemed to be totally missing with other actors.
I accept for once that Mamootty is irreplaceable in Indian cinema. Certain performances of his will stand tall as any great actor’s.
The next actor who steals the show is Sarath Kumar. It’s really amazing that this actor can still do stunts as good as any of today’s stars. He essays the role of the most trusted lieutenant of Pazhassi Raja.
Padmapriya is another actor who impresses. She does a neat job as the tribal fighter. She does some really impressive stunts.
Suman as the scheming general does not show enough villainy, Kanniha is there for a few scenes and looks quite confused in her expressions.
The English actors have no clue what’s happening and hold on to constipated expressions throughout. They show the same expression during defeat, anger, disgust and even while honoring slain Pazhassi Raja.
The other plus for the movie is the music and sound work. With 2 leading names of music industry at work, the result is wonderful. Music is mostly western classical, again a departure from the usual for Malayali period movies. It definitely adds to the Big screen viewing experience.
However, something which I missed in the movie was the literary touch of Malayalam movies. Coming from the MT- Hariharan stable, it was supposed to be a interesting piece of literature. While it does show in some scenes in the dialogues, on a whole it just stays short of being a piece of art. When I got out of the hall, I could recall the wonderful imagery and a couple of conversations between the protagonists and nothing more. Well, that’s a bit sad if this is portentous to movies stopping telling stories and merely remaining a show of technical wizardry.
And the verdict---- well it is a resounding win for the team which made this movie. The effort which has gone into making this movie is commendable and it definitely is a movie to watch in today’s era of pop corn movies which are as good as pop corn. What are pop corn movies? Well, You munch it, it gets inside, causes some gas trouble rather than quenching hunger, only making you a bit more thirstier to drink more cola which accentuates the gas trouble.
This movie is definitely a Big screen movie to be watched on the big screen rather than the idiot boxes. There are larger than life characters, Stars to fuel these characters, a vast landscape to capture the movie’s events, wars, dialogues, villainy, huge sets and many of the stalwarts of Malayalam movie industry are present in some way or the other.
The movie etches out the story of a revolutionary in Kerala who fought the British subjugation and fell victim to treachery and deceit of his kith and kin.
I won’t go into the story of the movie ‘cos, it might just steal the thunder for many who want to watch the movie. Moreover, the story doesn’t have the traditional flow of Malayalam movies. Focus being on technological finesse and other figments of Big screen movie, the flow of the movie suffers. Unfortunately there are other sequences like battles and songs which lend to the commercial appeal and take greater screen space than the actual story. It’s a difficult line to toe for the director between commercial cinema and the art part of things. Certain scenes start abruptly and end abruptly too sometimes. Suddenly a battle springs up when the Englishman yells- “We are going to squash them” or something of that sort. A battle ensues and suddenly another scene heavy with dialogues comes next. It must have been a tough job for the editing dept.
However, the movie revels in its picturisation, the sets, the photography, music, stunts, sound and performances. It’s really a treat to watch the scenes in lush green forests. The camera angles and shots are amazingly very un-malayali. There is a scene where a horse wades through water and comes out of the other end. Its captured in slow motion and has been done really well as the scene comes up when there is a decisive moment in Pazhassi Raja’s rebellion. The horse symbolizes the want for freedom.
The actors could have done a bit more. Most of the characters are supposed to be grim, being a period movie and the actors who don these characters also remain so. It makes the characters redundant with each one looking no different than the other. Women cry and the heroine gets a duet while on the other hand men fight, die, plot and are always serious.
Mamootty, however, revels in his role (let me clarify that am a Mohan Lal fan J). I have heard my friends and many other say Sarath Kumar essayed his role much better than Mamootty. I must admit Edachena Chandu does pack a punch in the movie and Sarath Kumar fits in perfectly there with his imposing physique and personality. However, I will still vote for Mamootty here primarily because of the difference he brings to the proceedings. He is not the angry Chandu of “Oru vadakkan veeragatha” where emotions run high all along. Here he is more brain than brawn. He devises plans and knows his strengths and allows his lieutenants to do the fighting and battle winning. He is much more poised and calm. This definitely is a huge difference he brings to the otherwise grim faced guys in each frame. The best part of course was the dialogue delivery. I simply loved the dialogues he had. Nobody could have delivered it any better. It’s also commendable that Mamootty doesn’t try to be a superhero here. The character is larger than life but he treats it with considerable poise not trying to do many things just concentrating on his strengths of dialogue delivery and screen presence. The stunts are not that great and technology comes to the rescue for him here. There are certain places where he tries to mouth English which are again a bit overboard. However, the biggest plus was the calmness and the cool demeanor which Mamootty adopts. He is at ease with his character which seemed to be totally missing with other actors.
I accept for once that Mamootty is irreplaceable in Indian cinema. Certain performances of his will stand tall as any great actor’s.
The next actor who steals the show is Sarath Kumar. It’s really amazing that this actor can still do stunts as good as any of today’s stars. He essays the role of the most trusted lieutenant of Pazhassi Raja.
Padmapriya is another actor who impresses. She does a neat job as the tribal fighter. She does some really impressive stunts.
Suman as the scheming general does not show enough villainy, Kanniha is there for a few scenes and looks quite confused in her expressions.
The English actors have no clue what’s happening and hold on to constipated expressions throughout. They show the same expression during defeat, anger, disgust and even while honoring slain Pazhassi Raja.
The other plus for the movie is the music and sound work. With 2 leading names of music industry at work, the result is wonderful. Music is mostly western classical, again a departure from the usual for Malayali period movies. It definitely adds to the Big screen viewing experience.
However, something which I missed in the movie was the literary touch of Malayalam movies. Coming from the MT- Hariharan stable, it was supposed to be a interesting piece of literature. While it does show in some scenes in the dialogues, on a whole it just stays short of being a piece of art. When I got out of the hall, I could recall the wonderful imagery and a couple of conversations between the protagonists and nothing more. Well, that’s a bit sad if this is portentous to movies stopping telling stories and merely remaining a show of technical wizardry.
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