Tuesday Sep 09 2008, Trivendrum

‘Adayalangal'- Impressive and disappointing too!

Directed by - M.G.Sasi

Produced by - Aravind Venugopal

Music by - Vidhyadharan

Casts - Govind Padmasurya, Jyothirmayi, T.V.Chandran, Sreeraman, Madambu Kunjukuttan, Sathi, T.G.Ravi, Manikantan etc.

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M.G.Sasi’s debut film ‘Adayalangal’, based on the life and literature of Malayalam writer ‘Nandanar’, is a film that impresses you and disappoints you as well.The way the film presents the life and the sufferings undergone by the protagonist, the young Gopi (Govind Padmasurya) is of course impressive.But the narrative used in the film and the images that have been used by the director to convey certain moods and highlight situations betray the fact that M.

G.Sasi perhaps has forgot to accept or take into stride the changes that has come over the medium in the course of the years.‘Adayalangal’ (aptly titled indeed!) starts with a depiction of the plight of Gopi and his family.Gopi’s father was forced to leave them as a consequence of the constant reprimanding by his step-son Ravunni (Manikantan).And very soon the father, who was a Kathakali artist, breathed his last too.

Gopi, his mother Madhavi (Sathi) and the two younger children (a boy and a girl), were left to fend for themselves.The shared amongst themselves the poverty that they were afflicted with and the humility that they had to face at times as a natural consequence of the same.And thus they dragged themselves on, through the drudgery called life.Ravunni, who was Madhavi’s son and Gopi’s step-brother, who was away fighting at the war-front (The story takes us back to the days of the Second World War) never bothered to help them.And then, Gopi got a job at a Beedi factory.

But soon, for no fault of his, he is fired by his master (Sreeraman).The miseries seem unending for the family.In the meantime Gopi finds solace in Meenakshi (Jyothirmayi), a girl who worships the snake-gods and who too has a passionate liking for him.At last, unable to bear the burdens of a miserable existence, Gopi takes a decision, a rather decisive one, to save himself and his family.But that would mean harming and hurting a lot many of his fellow human beings.

Debutante actor Govind Padmasurya is just OK as Gopi and there are times when his acting turns out to be rather unimpressive.Sathi, who dons the role of Madhavi, Gopi’s mother, too seems uncomfortable with the character at times.Jyothirmayi as Meenakshi is of course good and even does her best to bestow the character with some amount of voluptuousness.Manikantan seems to be the perfect choice for the role of Ravunni while Sreeraman, T.G.

Ravi and T.V.Chandran do justice to their parts.There is of course no point in attempting to review the lyrics, since the director has gone in for poems penned by the noted Malayalam poet Edappalli Ragahavan Pillai, choosing two poems from his collection ‘Maninaadam’.And Vidhyadharan has set to tune the poems in a real good manner.

Cinematography by M.J.Radhakrishnan is also a highlight of the movie.Director M.G.

Sasi has of course sought to focus on the miseries that his protagonist had to undergo.And he tries to depict how these sufferings had been instrumental in moulding the writer in him.But it seems he should have and could have done this more effectively and maybe a bit more cinematically.The images that M.G.

Sasi has used in the film too seem to be clichéd ones.He should have remembered that even T.V.Chandran, one of his ‘gurus’, has been led on to try newer kinds of narratives and cinematic modes, evolving out of the change in times and changing cinematic perspectives (you just have to see T.V.

Chandran’s ‘Vilaapangalkkappuram’ to be convinced of that).And at some points, ‘Adayalangal’ seems to tend to become more of a documentary, frame-wise and script-wise.Still, M.G.Sasi deserves to be appreciated for having tried to tread on a path that very few filmmakers would dare to choose.

The subject that he has chosen for his debut venture and the determination that he as well as the producers have shown in going on with the film and finally bringing it to the theatres need special mention and should be appreciated and encouraged.Bravo, M.G.Sasi!