Though the story looks interesting there is nothing new in it for it is an exact copy of Devasuram, including the climax scene. The director of this movie, Padmakumar worked as an assistant to Renjith who wrote Devasuram.[Review : Vargam | varnachitram]

To which Raphel Lazar commented

The finding of Devasuram and Vargam similarity is one of the jokes of the century. If we do not like a better movie to success and doesn’t like the actor who played it then it is OK. There are 100s of differences in both the movies.[Review : Vargam | varnachitram]

So in 2009, we have Prithviraj talking about the movie — on how he and the director Padmakumar were big fans of Devasuram, on why he thinks it is one the best commericial movies ever — and in the process mentions that Vargam was indeed an adaptation of Devasuram.

Panathinu meethe Parinthu parukkumo illayo ennu enikku ariyathilla. Athellam Parinthinte sowkariyam pole. Pakshe ente ee thalaikku meethe oru Parinthum parakkila. Paranaal.. chiraku arinju kalayum njaan.-[Madambi attacks Parinthu! ]

That was a line from Madambi and so we were all eager to see which movie had a worse story. Considering that Madambi was a rehash of various other movies, it was indeed tough to produce something worse than that. But M Padmakumar, whose pet theme is evil men attaining redemption, has managed to make a lackluster movie.

NowRunning.com says

Parunthu is a film that refuses to move beyond its kick-off point. Adamantly stuck to where it set off, it makes little progression and even lesser transition. There are a few trials to your patience as well, and there is no handsome reward at the end either.
The most laudable feature of Parunthu is that it doesn’t succumb to pave the way for a star warfare, which was eagerly anticipated by all and sundry, especially after its predecessor Madambi took an open dig at the film. As the credits roll, Parunthu has Purushothaman piercingly proclaiming that he would rather compete with himself, thereby pulling down the curtains on an imminent celebrity combat.

In Padma Kumar’s Parunthu, the regal bird is uncharacteristically passive. There is simply no ferocity in its eyes nor does it whoosh about with a lethal clinch. All it does is soar senselessly all around with neither a prey nor a perch in sight.

Sify writes

The trouble with the film is that in commercial cinema you have to show the hero with negative shades turning over a new leaf for the better to justify his early villainy. Here Parinthu in the first half is completely black, with no redeeming features.

But in the second half, writer T.A Razzak and director Padmakumar makes the character have a change of heart, and in the last scene he becomes too sentimental. Purushothaman tells Azeez in the climax fight- Nammal randuperum villain mara. Villain jayakuna charithrame illa….

The makers’ justification for turning a rock hard guy with no emotions suddenly into a emotional wreck is the film’s major flaw. The climax is jerky and loses the razor sharpness required of an action entertainer.

Paresh Palicha, for a change, makes some observations

That said, we do see a couple of directorial flourishes in a couple of scenes like Parunthu devouring chicken legs in the beginning while watching a news story about a family suicide (his victims as a result of his threats of eviction if they fail to repay the loan) all the while justifying his actions.

In the second half the same dining area is enveloped in darkness (after a change of heart), the food is untouched as a way of expressing his of guilt that money is the be all and end all in life.

Post Script: We never thought we’d see Mammootty and Mohanlal communicating to each other a la  Rajni-Jayalalitha style. Now that Parunthu didn’t take the bait we are eagerly waiting to see how this will play out. Is it the beginning of a new phase of rivalry or  beginning of the end of the rivalry?

Few years back we saw director Fazil doing a delicate trapeze act in a movie which had both Mohanlal  and Mammootty. Walking on egg shells, the director decided to have two different climaxes for the movie. If you were in Malabar region, you would have seen Mammootty winning Juhi Chawla and if you were from South Kerala, Mohanlal was the lucky man.

Few folks have decided to take this model to the next level. Padmakumar was planning a movie with Mammootty for a long time and lot of story ideas were floated, ranging from auto driver to astronaut. Finally this is what they came up with:

In Parinthu, Mammootty is a “ruthless moneylender ‘Gillette’ Purushothaman, for whom money is ultimate thing in life. He uses all dirty and crude tricks to get his interest and principal back from his creditors”.[

In Madambi, Mohanlal plays Gopalakrishna Pillai, “a kind hearted money lender in a village who knows how to get his interest and principal amount back using the right pressure technique.”[Madambi Vs Parinthu ]

If this is not thinking out of the box, we don’t know what is.  With this model, Mammotty does not have to give up Navneet Kaur, Lakshmi Rai, Roma and other 19 year olds in Trivandrum area and Mohanlal gets to dance with Kavya in Malabar region. It is a Win-Win situation.

This is a cute idea which will keep both fans groups happy. Theaters will be full with fans of both stars watching both movies to see who has performed the same story in a better way. This model is easy on the writers and directors too. Instead of pandering to two star egoes they can pander to one ego and use rest of the energy in directing the movie.

Unfortunately this model will work only for the two super stars and not for shooting stars, asteroids and black holes. Imagine releasing two versions of Mulla, one with Dileep and one with Prithviraj or De Ingottu Nokkiye with a Jayasurya version and Kalabhavan Mani version. The producers of such movies know the risk and what works for minor stars is not individual movies, but an ensemble cast , like Classmates or Swapnakoodu.

We hope our neighbors don’t pick up this neat trick. Else we will have to watch movies like Kuruvi, once with Vijay (which is punishment enough) followed by one with Ajith and god forbid, S J Surya.

In one of the most powerful scenes  in Vaasthavam we see  Unnithan(Jagathi) and Balachandran(Prithviraj) dividing five lakh rupees in hundreds of envelopes.  This is the money for bribing various individuals in state secretariat to get approval for a factory. In this occasion  Unnithan waxes eloquent about power of envelope and its place in democracy. This scene defines the movie.

Balachandran Adiga, is a member of a poor Brahmin family, son of an idealistic communist leader.  It’s Balachandran’s responsibility to marry off his sisters and get his family out of poverty. Balachandran’s job as priest in local temple and his sister Subha’s (Usha) tailoring is not enough to see them off from this desperate situation. Meanwhile Subha is in love with a local adivasi leader, and the whole family is against this as he’s of a different caste. Balachandran is in love with his cousin Sumitra(Kavya Madhavan), an affair both families approve.

At this juncture Thruppan Namboodiri(Salim Kumar) appears with an offer of arranging a job for Balachandran in state secretariat if Balachandran marries his niece Surabhi(Samvrutha Sunil). Balachandran is against this alliance. Sumitra, in order save Balachandran and his family decides to sacrifice her love. She asks Balachandran to take up Thruppan Namboodiri’s offer.

Balachandran marries Surabhi, and on the night of the marriage Subha elopes with Sreedharan, the adivasi leader. Heartbroken, Balachandran’s mother dies. After the funeral Balachandran leaves for Thiruvananthapuram to take up his job in secretariat.

And all this happens before the titles are shown!

In the secretariat, under the tutelage of Unnithan, Balachandran learns the lessons in corruption. Unnithan is a veteran in secretariat, has spend his whole life in that place. He is well versed in navigating the intricate bureaucracy and has no principles when it comes to accepting bribes. He considers and accepts corruption as a way of life in  secretariat. Balachandran who arrives at Thiruvananthapuram, with a strong resolve of leaving his past life behind accepts Unnithan as a moral guide.

Thruppan Namboodiri had arranged this job for Balachandran with the intention of having his own man in secreatriat. He had invested crores in a ceramic factory in Kasargod, the approval of which is stuck deep in bureaucratic jungle. He hopes that Balachandran will be able to get approval for this factory.  It was for this purpose the five lakh rupees, supplied by Thruppan, was distributed.

Balachandran hides the fact that he’s married from everyone. He gets close to Vimala Thankachi(Sindhu Menon), a colleague, who is a divorcee. Vimala is niece of Pattom Raveendran(Murali), a politician. With encouragement from Unnithan, Balachandran gets closer to Vimala. When Pattom Raveendran becomes minister, Balachandran uses Vimala to become a member of minister’s personal staff.  Balachandran never looks back from this point. Using clever machinations, with the help of minister’s wife Radhamani(Sona Nair) and with help of goondas, Balachandran becomes all powerful and rich. He becomes more powerful than the minister himself and becomes the ultimate bureaucrat controlling all aspects of administration.

Balachandran’s personal life is in shambles. He ignores Surabhi his wife and she lives in his house in Kasargod. Vimala Thankaci is used and forgotten. Sumitra got married to Sasidharan Pillai(Meghanathan), a policeman, who makes her life a living hell because of her past relationship. Balachandran gets Sasidharan Pillai transferred to Thiruvananthapuram as minister’s gunman with the intention of meeting up with Sumitra again. Thruppan Namboodiri never gets his factory approved as there is another powerful industrial group attempting to set up a factory in the same place.  Bankrupt Thruppan follows and begs Balachandran to help him get approval for the factory. Balachandran offers to pay back his share from the  from five lakhs distributed as bribe – which is fifty thousand rupees!

Rest of the story shows the depth into which a morally bankrupt Balachandran has fallen and his attempts at salvation.  The story by Babu Janardhanan moves at brisk pace. The writer attempts to tell so many things in the brief duration of this movie and often leaves many things unexplained, for example Balachandran’s meteoric and mysterious rise as minister’s personal staff is not properly explained.  But the writer is successful in realistic depiction of corrupt bureaucracy in Kerala, the starkness of which leaves the viewer riveted.

Prithviraj as Balachandran tries to keep up with the pace of the movie and delivers a good performance. His brooding intensity adds to the dark mood of the movie.  Jagathi as seventy year old Unnithan delivers most commendable performance, he lives in that role. Salimkumar as Thruppan namboothiri gets a break from his usual buffoonery and displays his talents. All the heroines, though short, has significant roles, a rarity in todays malayalam cinema. Kavya as silently suffering Sumitra, does justice to the role. Samvrutha as Surabhi has the shortest role of the three heroines, but shows why she’s rated as a good actress. Other notable performances are from Jagadeesh as Shibhu Vattapara and Murali as Pattom Raveendran.

Director Padmakumar keeps the proceedings under tight control and extracts good performances from all the actors. The story is told in a very straighfoward manner, without many parallel threads.. Manoj Pillai’s photography, gives a grey tone to movie,  adds to the dark mood of the movie. Alex Paul’s music is excellent with good songs, Arappavan Ponnu being the best song.

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As per the reviews, the movies seems to be of good quality. Looks like Vaasthavam is a movie in which has good direction, story/screen play and performances – a rare occurence in Malayalam.

Sify.com says:

The Pritviraj-Padmakumar team has given us something to cheer. After Ammakilikoodu and Vargam, they have come out with Vaasthavam, a gutsy and realistic film, like its title. It is brilliantly executed film on the rampant corruption, power struggle and hypocrisy in corridors of the state secretariat in Thiruvananthapuram.Pritviraj as Balan Adiga has given a knockout performance and his transformation from an ordinary guy from Kasaragod to the shrewd manipulator of Kerala politics, turns out to be the scene stealer. Babu Janadharnan’s screenplay has justified the characters vaulting ambitions and naked power play to remain the king maker till the end. Though the character has shades of grey, our sympathies go out to him as Padmakumar has etched it out beautifully.

Indiaglitz comments:

Once again, it’s time to rejoice for a scriptwriter and director who has relentlessly followed their insights and neither added a scene or shot to make their film feel more commercial or artistic. Yes, in Vaasthavam, director Padmakumar together with Babu Janardhanan has weaved a story of interlocking destines and the film holds you riveted till it lasts. And after several hiccups, Prithviraj once again has come of age with Vaasthavam in which he plays a corrupt, emotionless pragmatic secretariat staff who rises to the corridors of power with his practicality. The film is worth a watch in the theatres, thanks to an engaging directorial style of Padmakumar who believes in simple and straightforward way of story telling in this heavily loaded film.

 

The film is a welcome change in the placid superstar driven Malayalam film industry. It packs in quite a lot in terms of “a message for the masses” using the non-patented formulae successfully. Top line performance by principle actors, authentic locations, moodily lit interiors, good dialogues and spurts of emotional scenes are the major highlights of this action drama. The film is a blizzard of events of life in the capital secretariat which cumulatively leave an impact of a glossy documentary on the bureaucracy driven system.

Nowrunning.com summarises:

Director M. Padmakumar and writer Babu Janardhanan have done a really good job. The subject is well-chosen and the treatment is up to the mark.

Performance by Prithviraj as Balachandran is excellent. Kavya Madhavan as Sumithra, Samvritha as Surabhi and Sindhu Menon as Vimala Thankachi do their respective roles well. However, it’s Jagathy Sreekumar who scores best as Unnithan. Murali as the minister Pattom Raveendran and Salim Kumar as Thrippan Namboothiri have also done justice to their roles.

The others in the cast are also OK, except perhaps Rajmohan Unnithan, who has to learn that acting is a lot different from delivering political speeches. Cinematography by Manoj Pillai, Art Direction by Saloo K. George and Editing by L. Bhoominathan are in sync with the theme.

Velu writes:

Reality is merely an illusion, albeit a very persistent one. Or so it seems, as Vasthavam takes off with a whimper, with liberal doses of a tirade against all possible iniquities, that supposedly chomp up the little remnants left of what was once a civilization. The one man army that literally marches forward finds himself at the crossroads a bit later, with quite a few decisions to make. The ones that would make or mar his life.

Padmakumar’s first two attempts at filmmaking, drew mixed responses from the audience, though neither proved to be box-office hits. This time around he joins hands with script writer Babu Janardhan, and comes up with Vasthavam, with Prithviraj donning the lead role as Balachandran Adiga, a no-nonsense, non-political Brahmin from Kasaragod, who lands up in the capital city, as he has earned himself a job in the Secretariat. On the way to Trivandrum and a plush life, he has forsaken quite a lot, including his childhood sweetheart Sumitra (Kavya Madhavan). He gets betrothed instead to the docile Surabhi (Samvrutha Sunil), and beds none other than the shrewd Vimla (Sindhu Menon) as he moves ahead with sturdy strides, up the long winding ladder of poltics and power. He loses all three and almost his life in the deal, even as he realizes the earth moving away beneath his feet. Entangled in an array of events that get weary after a while, the plot loses track and ends up being just another chronicle of a warfare against corruption, sleaze, dishonesty and deceit.

Rediff.com says

Malayalam film, Vaasthavam, is about the games played in the corridors of power. Director M Padmakumar, who recently made the unusual police drama Vargam, gives us another grand vision. Vargam gave Prithviraj a landmark movie, and so expectations were quite high. Balachandran Adiga (Prithviraj) faces a lot of family responsibility. His father has lost everything due to socialist leanings and his four sisters are yet to be married. For the betterment of his family, he has to marry Surabhi (Samvrutha) to clinch a job in the State Secretariat. But his heart is with his childhood love, Sumitra (Kavya Madhavan

After Ammakkilikkoodu and Vargam , Padmakumar and Prithviraj have joined hands together again.

Raghavan Master, a scion of a high Namboothiri family and an ardent communist considered his party more than his family or any other relations. He, in the course of increasing his party’s holds and preaching party ideals sold away much of his ancestral property and all that is left now is the ancestral home, devoid of the fame and fortune it once had. Balachanbran Adiga is his only son who has the burden of looking after his family and his four nubile daughter’s. His father’s irresponsible behaviors led to hate politicians and politics. He knows the difficulties involved in bringing the family back from the brink of nothingness and in marrying off his sisters and for that he adopts a very pragmatic approach to life.

 

Balachandran’s eldest sister Shobha does some tailoring and manges a low earning with which the family is kept out of hunger. Not withstanding the family chaos Balachandran’s younger sister Shubha walks out with Adivasi leader Sreedharan, causing irreparable damage to the family reputation. Following this incident his mother dies, and he is forced to forget his murappennu and childhood playmate Sumitra and is compelled to marry Surabhi a girl from a rich family, to tackle the serious economic adversities that his family faces. Sumithra who forces Balachandran to risk their dreams for the sake of his family finally marries a cruel and corrupt police officer. [Vaasthavam - unusual growth of a pragmatist]

The movie also has Kavya Madhavan as the heroine and she is very good in emotional roles. Besides this, movies with Prithviraj and Kavya like Ananthabhadram and Classmates have done well in the box office. The music of the movie is by Alex Paul and currently he is riding a wave with foot tapping numbers in Classmates and Pothen Vava.

Story and screenplay is by Babu Janardhanan. His previous works like Thachiledathu Chundan, Varnapakittu and Chathurangam didn’t exactly set the screen on fire.

Prithvi is leading the young brigade,and in Vargam he has proved to be capable of shouldering a movie and is the hero of biggest blockbuster in the history of Malayalam cinema. If Vasthavam delivers and becomes a commercial hit, then naturally he would move to the next level in the food chain.

Padmakumar is considered as one of the most promising directors in Malayalam. He has proved his strengths in Vargam and has demonstrated in the past that he can make can make intense, tight movies with good characterization. In this movie he has assembled some of the best talent possible and if this works out he would become one of the bankable directors in Malayalam.

In the opening teaser scene in the movie, you see a bunch of people beating a man to pulp. It is darkness and you don’t get to see the faces. After that you see Sub-Inspector Solomon (Prithviraj) lying in a hospital fighting for his life. Then the movie starts and you get to know why Solomon got beaten up. In fact you start wondering why he did not get beaten up earlier.

Solomon is arrogant and corrupt to the core. “I am no Harischandran”, he tells Vavachen (Devan), a political leader with whom he has various issues. It all starts when Vavachen’s brother Dennis comes for vacation in Rajakkad in Idukky where Solomon is the inspector. They get off on a wrong start. First they have a fight in a club where Dennis and gang try to beat Solomon. In turn Solomon catches him with a prostitute and gets Vavachen to pay for it. Dennis tries to kill Solomon, but he gets arrested again. In jail Solomon beats him to death and destroys the body. A grief stricken Vacachen pleads with Solomon to tell him what happened to his brother, but Solomon does not. In turn he gets a transfer to Kasargod and disappears from the scene.

Even though Solomon is corrupt, there is only one person he listens to. The local priest (Rajan P Dev) gets him to contribute to charity for the treatment of a blind girl. Solomon’s father had left him to marry another woman and he holds a grudge against him as well. On persuasion by the priest, he visits his ailing father, but refuses to recognize the daughters of his second marriage as his sisters. His only other friend is a big shot smuggler-businessman Ummachen played by Vijayaraghavan.

In Kasargod, Solomon does not change his ways. There he befriends Abu Backer Haji (Captain Raju) and his son Sharif (Ananthu), who run the underworld business there. His neighbor there is a school teacher (Renuka Menon) and her mother. Once Sharif tries to harm the teacher and Solomon rescues her. Later he asks the teacher to withdraw the case and but she refuses. He then catches her in public as a prostitute and in the shock of that her mother dies.

He feels sorry for that, but the teacher does not want anything to do with him. In the meantime Solomon falls out with the the Haji and his sons who beat him to pulp. That was the first scene we saw in the movie. Solomon miraculously escapes and starts repenting. He wants to be a good man. The teacher comes to know his story from the priest and she helps him. While all seemed well, Vavachan appears again. Their interaction forms rest of the movie.

Though the story looks interesting there is nothing new in it for it is an exact copy of Devasuram, including the climax scene. The director of this movie, Padmakumar worked as an assistant to Renjith who wrote Devasuram. What makes the movie interesting is Prithviraj as Solomon. He portrays the angry, arrogant and cynical police officer to perfection. The scorn in his words and irreverence to everyone is visible both in his body language and in his eyes. Besides giving him a forceful body language, the director who wrote the script has given him some excellent dialogue. Each of the scene has been filmed focusing on Prithviraj, giving him ample opportunity to make an impact and he does it successfully.

There is a scene in the bar where Solomon is playing cards with a bunch of friends when Dennis comes by. Dennis was insulted the previous day and he wants to take revenge for it. He walks around Solomon taunting him. Solomon tries to dismiss him, but he does not go away. Then Dennis places his hands on Solomon’s shoulders and then his reaction changes. He becomes blind with rage and beats everyone there. Later in Kasargod when he encounters Sharif trying to molest the teacher, he does not beat him, but slowly takes his gun, points at Sharif’s face and says in a normal voice that he will shoot him. Thus Solomon remains menacing most of the time without raising his voice. He knows the pressure points of each of his adversaries and makes the best of it.

While Vijayaraghavan and Devan do what they do normally, the other person who got a better role this time was Renuka Menon. She debuted with the hit movie Nammal and moved into Telugu movies doing roles which her parents would not be proud of. Unlike Revathy who got ample screen time in Devasuram, Renuka gets only a small portion of the second half. In her segment she makes an impact as her character goes through abrupt twists in a short span of time.

There are only few characters in this movie and the script is very tight. Besides giving Prithviraj enough opportunity to perform, Padmakumar has also used two contrasting landscapes very well. While Idukki is luscious and green Kasargod is dry and barren. This scenery reflects in what happens in Solomon’s life as well.

Padmakumar also captures the expressions in the eyes of the characters very well. Once when Vavachen comes into Solomon’s office, he arrogantly lists his credentials and in his eyes you can see that feeling. Later when he comes to plead for the body of his brother, his eyes show helplessness. In fact the eyes of all the characters Solomon, Haji, and the teacher get such close up shots as they all go through the highs and lows in their lives.

Usually in such movies, there are a few namesake songs in the beginning and the whole action picks up in the second half. In this movie, the songs come towards the end of the second half and they are forgettable. There is only one irritating point in the movie and that is the use of voice overs for narration. In visual mediums like movies, you show and don’t tell. The narration could have been avoided by converting that into dialogue.

This movie is the coming of age of two people – Prithviraj as an actor and Padmakumar as a director.