Perumazhakkalam

Yesterday I watched the Malayalam film Perumazhakkalam at Mas theater.

Akbar (Dileep) and Raghuraman (Vineeth) are close friends and colleagues working in Saudi Arabia. During some fight among friends regarding some money matter, in a burst of anger Akbar hurls some heavy object at one person, and that hits Raghuraman, who comes in between. Raghu dies, and a thoroughly shattered Akbar tells the police that he has murdered Raghuraman. The Shariat laws give death sentence to Akbar.

These incidents are narrated later by John Kuruvila (Biju Menon), Akbar's friend, who comes to Kerala to meet Akbar's family. The film starts with the sad news arriving at the Kerala village, where a loving wife Razia (Meera Jasmine) is waiting eagerly for her husband to come back, along with her (or his?) ageing father (Mamukkoya). They see a ray of hope as John tells that the Shariat laws may forgive Akbar if they get a signature from Raghuraman's wife saying that she has forgiven him. Razia, along with her father, goes to Kalpathi, to meet Ganga (Kavya Madhavan), Raghuraman's wife, who is obviously in an even worse condition.

Even though director Kamal has made several good films like Kakkothikkavile Appooppan Thadikal, Orkkappurathu, Paavam Paavam Rajakumaran , Ulladakkam and Gazal which have excelled in one department or other, I think Perumazhakkalam is his most perfect film so far. Except for the last few minutes, which show a post-3 year happening, all the incidents of the film happen in a period of just about a week, and overall it gives the impression of reading a good short story. The script by T.A. Razak is restrained, except for a bit of "filmy" concluding scenes, and few scenes here and there showing Salim Kumar which should have been trimmed. I am actually surprised that even after making such a nice film, Kamal still didn't feel anything awkward in keeping a character in it like that of Salim Kumar's. I think the scene showing Sadique's (forgot the name of the character) advancement towards Razia also should have been avoided, and it just caused a deja vu feeling for me. So were the scenes with the television interviewers. I think they just reduced the emotional intensity of those scenes.

Both Meera Jasmine and Kavya Madhavan give wonderful performances; but Mamukkoya is the surprise element of the film. The actor who has always done comic characters, for the first time gets a serious role and he has done it with perfection.

Most of the film is picturized in the background of rain, beautifully photographed by cameraman P Sukumar. Another plus point of the film is its beautiful songs and background music by M Jayachandran (even though he has copied the famous "Lara's theme" of Doctor Zhivago in the beginning of the "kallayi kadavathu" song. Even now, the songs still echo in my ears and I wont mind watching the film again.