The Malayalam director is also pleased about the fact that he beat off competition from none other than film legend Adoor Gopalakrishnan, also from Kerala, who won his seventh National Award, the Best Director nod for his film Naalu Penungal. “Adoor is a legend and the fact that I will receive an award in the same ceremony itself is a thrilling thing. And to top it off I also beat him as a competitor, What could be better,” says Priyadarshan who said that the awards came as a surprise. [This award proves all the naysayers wrong: Priyadarshan]

Next, Ousepachan. Finally he won his first national award, apparently after missing it narrowly for Unnikale Oru Katha Parayam and Freaky Chakra. The uniqueness of the music for Ore Kadal was:

that are all composed in one raga – Shuba Panthuvarali. The evocative, poignant numbers sung by singers like Bombay Jayashri, flautist Naveen Nair, Sujatha, G. Venugopal and youngsters Vineeth Sreenivasan and Swetha, and the composer himself, had enhanced the mood of the film and the theme.

The music composer is all praise for the director of the film, Shyamaprasad, who suggested that he compose all the songs in one raga to retain and accentuate the mood of the theme. To ensure that the songs did not sound monotonous, he “decided to vary the shruti and tempo” of the songs.

“It was a challenge for me. It is not a difficult task to compose songs in certain ragas like Mohanam or Kalyani but Shuba Panthuvarali is a difficult raga and so the director wondered if it would prove to be a difficult task. But, surprisingly, I took only three minutes each to compose four of the songs. It was the title track sung by Naveen that I had to work on,” recalls Ouseppachan. [The Hindu : Friday Review Thiruvananthapuram / Interview : Scoring a winner]

For the same film, Shyama Prasad won the third national award for the best film in Malayalam

“It has been an evolution that has seen me grow as a director and as a filmmaker,” says Shyamaprasad. He adds that although he was disappointed when his film was passed over by the State film awards jury last year, he has no complaints “as awards are elusive and each jury differs and these things happen. However, I did feel bad for Ouseppachan when he did not win an award for his work then. His songs and background score were exceptional and conveyed the story so well. It was an organic part of the film. It was his spontaneity that impressed me.”[The Hindu : Friday Review Thiruvananthapuram : Waves of applause]

Adoor too won the National Award, but that is like saying – the sun rises in the east. Naalu pennungal also won the award for the best editing.

It is a very good feeling [laughs]. I make a film after a long gap. So, every time I make a film, I forget what had happened before. It is a new experience for me every time. So, when I win an award, it makes me very happy. For me, every award is fresh and new. [It's not just another national award for Adoor Gopalakrishnan: Rediff.com movies]

Less mentioned is the fact that Vipin Vijay won the Special Jury Award for a non-feature film for ‘Poomaram’

The award-winning ‘Poomaram,’ is Vipin’s tribute to Judy Grahn’s radical Metaformic theory and is based on several aspects of her book ‘Blood, Bread and Roses: How Menstruation Created the World.’ “It is a ‘mythographic’ audio-visual observation of the interconnection between ancient menstrual rituals and the development of agriculture, mathematics, writing, calendars (the lunar calendar apparently bears similarities to menstrual cycles) and other realms of knowledge, science and arts,” explains the filmmaker. [The Hindu : Friday Review Thiruvananthapuram / Interview : Accolades for experiments]

Interestingly the best actor award went to Prakash Raj and not Mohanlal for Pardesi. If you look at it, Pardesi handled a sensitive issue and had all those words which would appeal to a jury – alienation, thrisanku swargam, homelessness etc. Also Mohanlal portrayed, with Pattanam Rasheed’s help, three stages in the life of a character. Long time back the finalists for the best actor award as Nedumudi Venu for Minnaminunginte Nuruguvettam and Kamal Haasan for Nayakan. The jury gave the award to Kamal since he portrayed the life span of a character whereas Nedumudi was old throughout the movie. This time that logic did not fly.

Mohanlal’s performance seems to be the highlight of Pardesi. Reviewers are proclaiming that it’s a National award worthy performance. But then, acting ability is taken off as one of the criterion for national award, hence getting a national award would be a tough proposition. The story and treatment of the subject too receives reviewers appreciation.

Sify reviews:

The entire film revolves around Valiyakkathu Moosa, and Mohanlal lives the role. He is excellent as he plays the three stages of Moosa’s character each with a different look and body language. Upright and unbreakable, he presides over the film like a torch whose burning is invisible to everyone except the viewer. It is a performance that is likely to get him a National Award. In the climax, watch the scene where the 85-year old Moosa loses his inner strength and panics seeing the police jeeps and tries to hide in his own house and the final shot of him trudging all alone in the desert and slowly disappearing in the distance is truly heart rendering. Mohanlal is mesmerising and reinvents the idiom of acting once more with feeling.

Watch out for Mohanlal’s favourite item girl Shwetha Menon emerging as an actress of substance with a spirited performance as Ameena! From wearing minimal clothes on screen in bimbo roles, here she is terrific- dressed in thatta, mundu with long -sleeved blouse and walking with a Koonu( a stoop). Padmapriya as the fiery journalist is superb and proves that she is the actress of her generation. The others in the film are all realistic like Lakshmi Gopalasamy, Jagathy, Siddique, T.G Ravi, Haneefa etc. The music of the film by Ramesh Narayanan and Shahbaz Aman is another highlight, with its mixture of Hindusthani and Oppana. Thattum Pidichu… sung by Sujatha is a beautiful melody, with typical Malabar flavour that one associated with past masters like Baburaj. And M.G Sreekumar, Vineeth Sreenivasan song Yara Dhuni Dhuni…. a picturisation of a Muslim marriages of the sixties in Malabar rocks!

Rediff.com comments:

If we take the case of Valiyakkathu Moosa (Mohanlal), the octogenarian has a lifetime of experience being hit like a ping pong ball from both sides. It has made him weary. He has also been marginalised by his own children fearing trouble from the powers that be. Living in fear of law can be one thing if you have the support of the close ones; it is another thing when you have to be floating in the fear with a lonely heart.

The director adopts an intelligent technique to unfold this torrid tale; it is shown as a freelance journalist researching the subject so we get different perspectives. But they are mainly from the victims’ point of view. It would have helped if there an effort made to gather the thoughts of law enforcers’ that would have made the subject more holistic. Here the police and lawyers are just an abusive lot trying to fleece the poor souls.

The only problem with this film (if we want to look at it that way) is that it is made with a technique that was entrenched in the 80s (the way films were made by the students of Film Institutes) with unnatural dialogue delivery and long pauses that feels jaded.

See Also:  Preview: Paradesi
Photo courtesy: rediff.com

The reigning stars of Malayalam cinema believe in matching each other step by step. For Onam we had a movie aimed at gallery from Mohanlal and an art house production from Mammootty. This Ramzan it’s Mohanlal’s turn to get one his art house productions released where as Mammooty is playing to the gallery with Nasrani. The director of Paradesi, P.T.Kunjumhammed had initially approached Murali and then Mammootty for the title role, but both of them turned down the offer for various reasons. P.T.Kunjumohammed was lucky third time when he approached Mohanlal, who accepted it as well as got his driver to produce it.

Paradesi is P.T.Kunju Mohammed’s 3rd venture after Magrib and Garshom, both critically acclaimed movies. In his latest movie, the director touches upon the subject of people who are alien in their own home country.

Valiyakathu Moosa is one of hundreds of Malayalees who left to work in Karachi during the days of the British Raj, who after independence returned to India in the 1960s and settled in Malappuram. They do not have a passport or even an address in the land they were born in, due to their plight in Pakistan during the time of separation and independence. Many look upon them as Pakistani spies, and many a times had to face law to prove their identity. Moosa has a wife and children here who are Indian citizens, but Moosa himself is not considered a citizen of the country, due to some technical objections from the bureaucracy.This third film written and directed by P.T. Kunju Mohammed, will have Mohanlal playing a totally different and very challenging role in many getups as Valiyakathu Moosa. Lakshmi Gopalswamy plays the role of wife of Moosa. Kavya Madhavan comes up in the role of a journalist investigating into life and livelihood of this sidelined section of society. The story unfolds through her attempts to find a way out of the problems that envisaged people like Moosa. The film also moves through many stages forth and back as flashbacks to present the story of Moosa. This is reflected in the costumes, settings and even in the songs of the film.[Paradesi]

This is a very bold subject and an issue which has not been tackled in Indian cinema before. Even though such people live in our midst, most Malayalees are not even aware of their problems and so P.T.Kunju Mohammed has to be congratulated for the subject and Mohanlal for taking up the challenge of portraying the three stages of Moosa’s life ( at 35, 60 and 80). After seeing him in movies like Ali Bhai, we are sure this movie will finally bring out the actor in Mohanlal for according to the movie stills he has transformed himself into the character of Valiyakathu Moosa.

The leading ladies of this movie are Lakshmi Gopalaswami and Shweta Menon. The music department is handled by Ramesh Narayanan and Shahbaz Aman. As to how this movie would fare in box-office, it’s a foregone conclusion. As to why Mohanlal chose to do this movie, is also a no brainer.

See Also: In search of a place called home
Photo courtesy: rediff.com