Jul 27, 2009 05:31 PM
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(Updated Jul 27, 2009 05:36 PM)
T.V.Chandran is one of my favourite directors of Malayalam Cinema. He has given us many brilliant films like ‘Alicinte Anveshanam’, Ponthan Mada’, ‘Ormakalundaayirukkanum’, ‘Susannah’, ‘Danny’ etc. With ‘Ponthan Mada’ hebrought Naseeruddin Shah to the Malayalam Screen, and my favourite among theseis ‘Ormakalundaayirukkanum’. When I came across the news that he is directing aTamil film I was eager to see the movie.
But alas, it did not get released intheatres, if I am correct. And at last, a TV channel telecasted. it a couple ofdays back Incidentally, this is not his first Tamil film. His very first filmthat got released was in Tamil –‘Hemavin Kaathalargal’ decades back, withAnuradha making her debut.
‘Aadum Kooththu’ roughly translated means a dance dramaperformance and the phrase is taken from a Bharathiar poem. It is the story ofManimekalai’s (Navya Nair) hallucinations. A serious reader of modernliterature, from a southern district of TamilNadu, she sees visions, that noone believe…say for instance, a dead body lying near a river.
Later incidents prove, that what she said becometrue. She creates scenes, whenever she has these illusions. Interestingly, theillusions are like a movie projected on an imaginary screen from her bangle presentedby her fiancee Muthu. The bangle isactually made from molten celluloid. This projected movie roughly reveals thestory of a couple of street performers in love and tortured by a lustfulzamindar (Prakash Raj) who tonsures the girl’s head. This girl who appears in this imaginary film is also Navya Nair, and her pair is Cheran.
Even on the marriage stage, her bangle projects such a showspecially for her, and she creates a scene ending in the cancellation of themarriage ceremony. Later her understanding fiancée Muthu accompanies her to investigatewhat really happens. It leads to an old retired school master, who says thestory of the dropped movie. In the later 70s this movie was actually made by anenthusiastic young director Gnanasekaran (Cheran) and dropped in the midway dueto a mishap.
This retired man was enacting the role of the zamindar in the film, and the plot was based on a real incident. The heroine is at first reluctant, when the director/hero tells her that her head will be really shaved and nospecial effects business. After persuasion, she agrees for the sake of reality.Meanwhile, the real zamindars’s son (Seeman) comes to the shooting spot andobjects, the real incident maligning his dad, should not be canned. The masterpacifies him saying that it is only an imaginary plot.
But this zamindar’s son returns with his bunch of hooligansand creates havoc in the shooting spot. The tonsured heroine is mentallydisturbed and hangs herself, and the shooting comes to a halt. The directordisappears , only to return as a naxalite to annihilate the ‘wicked’ zamindaralong with his unshaved revolutionary comrades. But he is encountered by thecops and shot down, and the period was the famous Emergency.
The ending is a virtual blah-blah. Manimekalai suddenlywields a camera and becomes a docu film maker and goes to the particularvillage again. There she meets the real Dalit woman (Manorama) who was tonsuredduring the zamindar’s period , and interviews her. And she repeats thedialogues prompted by Manimekalai with a theatrical accent and a huge whitewig. The zamindar’s grandson (Seeman again) is also interviewed and yawn…thefilm at last ends.
I still wonder what made T.V.Chandran to make this movie. Theending of the movie is a real mess. The costumes of the street performers arevery artificial. The only saving grace is Navya nair, who has given a fineperformance as Manimekalai , the street performer and actress Prabha. Cherangives a pathetic look as he always does, and the ever vibrant Prakash Raj ishidden behind a dubbed voice. Seeman is ridiculous in his turban and silkcostumes which were museum pieces during the 70s. Pandiarajan gives a cameo asthe ever drunken son in law of the family. Jagathi Srikumar, with his originalvoice, appears as a dull doctor, a character often found in TVCs films, and heprescribes that the heroine should not read modern Tamil literature. The othercharacters just fill the screen.
Madhu Ambat wields the camera, which captures the beauty of India’ssouthernmost districts. Thomas Kotukkapulli has scored the music andT.V.Chandran has added one more film to his list of filmography.
