Thanmatra

Thanmatra (Molecule).

Thanmatra is the film that has the potential to liberate the Malayalam film audience from the abyss they are put in by the mediocre or rather substandard film makers who create some craps which they call themselves as commercials .To be liberated or not is purely the audience choice and the coming weeks will answer it.
The film title puts it all. “Molecule”, is something which clings on to another molecule, which sans an existence by its own. So its nothing ,but pure love . In the film we can see many molecules who cling on to one another out of love. Rameshan’s father (Nedumudi Venu) clings on to his son .Rameshan in turn clings on to his family and his son to Rameshan, and that’s the film all about. The final message the film conveys is that even a strange villain like Alzheimer’s can never break the molecular bond formed out of love. This film underlines the fact that a movie is the directors art. The greatest strength of the movie is its story and the way it is executed. How well the script is done and how well each character is etched out can be known from the fact that the even the dialogue of the unnamed character who carries the goods while Rameshan shifts to his ancestral home remains in our memory when we recall the film .All the artistes were terrific in their roles. The word to the director is the dialogue of his own character in this film- ”Payya thinnal panayum thinnam…ennu vechu pana angu thinnu kalanjekkam ennalla” .
Let Thanmaatra reinvent the magic of mid 80’s into the Malayalam film industry and let us all hope to see more of this genre of films .

Tanmatra ('Molecule') (2005)

A film to watch definitely! Sourced from a Padmarajan’s story ('Orma') how can it go wrong! The nice thing is after the big hullabaloos regarding the drought of good stories for our films; new directors have got back to reading our literature. Nice indeed!

About Blessy, 'Kazhcha' was a promise to Malayalee audiences, Blessy keeps up the promise in this film. Though while watching the songs in Asianet plus etc I have felt that this was not the ideal casting (I felt the heroine was little younger than you would expect to pair a mature Mohanlal character) after watching the film, my apprehensions, I have to admin, have been quite out of place. If we can accommodate for the first timers’ lack of experience (at least in some scenes) the casting is quite to the point. Shades of brilliance from the debutant in the role of Lal’s son, makes us wait to see more, similar sensible roles from him. Mohan Lal has given an outstanding performance in the film; Rameshan Nair will definitely rank among the best performances from this seasoned actor. Nedumudy Venu, Jagathy, newcomer Meera Vasudevan, Seetha and the kid enacting as Lal's daughter - all in all quite apt and fitting casting. Seetha was a real find from Blessy for the role, given the character shows semblances of similar characters (say in Sukrutham) and the characterization looks a little stereotype, the actress renders some freshness to it. Typical of Blessy films (agreed, this is just his second film and this generalization may be a little early), all the characters carry with them that special charm which lingers around in ones heart long after watching the film. Though a genuine question can be raised regarding the black and while nature of some of these characterizations, these are elements which makes Blessy films dearer to the conventional family audiences and hence the scripts deserve a special appreciation for this.

Am still to read the original story from Padmarajan, and hence don't know about the cinematic liberties Blessy could have taken on the original; the story just meanders into a certain depth of human relationships and existential puzzles. Rameshan Nair's tryst with Alzheimer’s and its impact on the peaceful life of his middle class family is the crust of the story. Relationships across ages and generations, where aspirations stand to pass the tests of time are juxtaposed with the stark reality of the Medical condition and the agonies it brings along with it. The impact of this story, as it starts unraveling since the interval, is quite disturbing and moving. As the saying goes that 'we never realize the value of things till we lose them', it is even complex when our consciousness cannot realize what we are losing. The whole labyrinths of mind and memory are so much ’taken for granted' by many of us; that suddenly this story rocks at some of the basics which we have missed to contemplate on. That is the beauty of taking up such a subject and as my friend told me on the way back "The disturbances that these films evoke about things are much more intense than say a horror film because, we start realizing that we are in fact dealing with unavoidable reality, rather than fiction here", quite well said my friend.

While commercial cinema in the country has started losing the organic relationship with such realities of living, films like this bring it back to the theatres, and that is where it is most commendable. Even while quite optimistically wishing that the film pulls crowds to the theatres, even if it doesn't, still we have to keep believing and hoping that such cathartic works will refresh our cinematic experiences and sensibilities in the future also.