Mar 05, 2007 08:42 PM
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(Updated Mar 05, 2007 08:44 PM)
For all of us, college life is the place where we finally throw off the chains of childhood and join the ranks of the adults. We enter colleges with stars in our eyes and feel that the sky is the limit for our aspirations. We made lot of friends, some enemies too. It was difficult to think of life without the stabilizing influence of these friendships.
Its been a while since I left college. Once we all completed our education and rushed to join the human rat race, it was difficult to keep in touch. Friends grew apart, slogging away in strange lands. But when we did meet up, we had a great time. Remembering the old days - the stale chapattis at the canteen, the giggling girls, the studious bunch with their textbooks, the college bus and the romeos busy copying their next love letter:-)
I have always rued the fact that I had to study in the rarefied'schoolish' environment of an engineering college in chennai(sheethegaricha classroomil padicha ivalkku friendshipne patti paranjaal manassilavilla. remember:-)) while my relatives and friends enjoyed life at their colleges in Kerala. When Principal Acchan talks about the current batch of students who do not take time to enjoy their college, it made me feel bad about the way I had missed my chance.
Politics has been an integral part of Kerala colleges. If you take romance, politics and passion you get a heady mix and thats what Classmates is all about.
Most of you know the story already, so I will not go into the details here. Rather I want to point out the parts of the story which struck me as interesting in the pros and cons
1) Have you noticed that a couple of scenes in the movie are shown repeatedly, but each time from a different point of view. For eg: The scene where Pritviraj asks Tara and her friends to leave the college for the strike. In the beginning, we see the screen from Pritviraj's point of view, but later again we see it from the Penguins point of view(when Murali flicks her book). Similarly scenes where Razia bangs head on into Sukumaran while running to hear Murali singing.
Its an interesting technique and was refreshing to watch.
2) It is a celebration of youth. Most campus movies in Malayalam tend to be cheesy cr*p where 30 year-old-so-called-actors(read Idavela Babu, Harisri Ashokan and co.) pretend to walk around with books in their hand, making fun of some heroine. However, this movie has a fresh and young look about it. Infact the only guy who stood out as a elderly person among the team was Pious with his small'thoppa', but again he is a rich planter's son, so maybe its part of the character
3) Treatment of politics. There is no other college movie that has treated student politics so well. Satheeshan and Sukumaran brought out the characteristics of their individual parties very well and the back stabbing that goes as part of these politics
4) No black and white characters. Most screenplays do not take time to develop their characters. However in this movie, every character is a well-rounded one. Thought and care has gone into bringing each character to life and everyone gets atleast one scene to'shine' - whether it is the Inspector or Estappan Acchan.
5) Ente Khalbile. What do I say here? I have been mesmerised by the beauty of this song. A more romantic song has not come out in Malayalam movies for a long time.
6) The Penguin. What an actress? She will go miles.
Its not all roses for this movie. There are few things that I did not like about this movie.
1) The pathetic romance scene in the classroom after the police lathicharge. The dialogues are corny. In any other movie, they might have been understandable, but in this movie where everything else was of excellent quality, this bit brought the standard down
2) Pritviraj needs to learn to laugh properly. Currently it looks as if he is sniggering or having a bad asthmatic attack.
3) I love Kavya Madhavan. However in her last few movies, she is having a tired look, almost as if she was sleep walking throughout the movie.
Inspite of the above drawbacks, I love this movie for the fresh look and good production values. May more such fresh ideas flower in the Malayalam movie industry.
