| 8:01a |
Autograph
Watched this Tamil film yesterday. It is directed by Cheran, who acts in the main role as well. The film is about Senthil, who is about to get married. He remembers the three love affairs in his life as he is traveling through places where he spent his childhood and college days.
The first segment is about Senthil's infatuation with his high school classmate Kamala. This part is beautifully narrated with nice picturisation and background music. The girl who played Kamala's role (a new face?) performed brilliantly. The scene in which Senthil meets her again after a long time, this time to invite her for his marriage - she is now a plumb woman who looks older than her age, and is the mother of three children - was touching and the editor has contributed a lot here by interweaving images of the past with those of present in a sensible manner.
After this restrained first half hour, the second segment was a bit melodramatic with nothing much innovative. Here, Senthil reaches Alappuzha, where he joins college. The new Malayalam actress Gopika plays the role of his classmate Lathika here (She looks good with a nice smile and long beautiful hair). This part has many good images of Kerala, of rain, and backwaters of Alappuzha. But I didn't feel the development of love affair between Senthil and Lathika is narrated in a smooth manner, and in the end it drags to typical clichéd pattern. She says a long Malayalam dialogue couple of times. It was the most unnatural thing in this whole movie. Gopika has few scenes at the end of the film where she gets a chance to show that she is capable of acting.
The third segment is not exactly a love affair, but a "friendship" (!) between Senthil and his colleague Divya. Sneha plays this role. I felt that this part was the worst among the three. In the end, Senthil marries another girl, and all the three women in his life attend his wedding.
Autograph begins in a very promising manner, but it failed to meet the expectations generated in the first half an hour. Still, it is a different film that is made sincerely, and is really worth watching. (Comment on This) |
| 7:07p |
Deshatanakkili Karayarilla
Watched this old Malayalam film today afternoon on TV. It is a critically acclaimed Padmarajan film, but I hadn’t got a chance to watch it before. The story is about two girl students (played by Karthika and Sari) of a boarding school: Dejected by neglect and lack of affection from parents, they run away from the school during a picnic, looking for the thrill of adventure, and also to take revenge on the teacher who was in charge of the picnic. The teacher is suspended from the school. The girls live in disguise at a far away place, where they meet Mohanlal and story takes a twist. It was an excellent film that made me feel how we miss Padmarajan. Now I have seen most of his films. I think the only films remaining are Arappatta Kettiya Gramam and Oridathoru Phayalvan.
I have felt that Malayalam filmmakers don’t give very imaginative titles to their films. Either it would be very straightforward names (like Meesa Madhavan or Balettan) or it would be good looking words that have absolutely no relevance to the theme of the film (most of the Priyadarsan films are good examples). Deshatanakkili Karayarilla (Migratory Birds Don’t Cry) is one of the very few titles of Malayalam cinema that are exceptions to this. (4 Comments | Comment on This) |