Thirakkatha which literally means “screenplay” has an interesting script and an engaging narration. The movie follows a young director Akbar aka Akki (Prithviraj) who highly appreciated for his first movie is looking for a script. He finally decides to make a movie on the life of a celebrated actress of yester years, Malavika (Priyamani) who has completely disappeared from public life. What follows is essentially the journey of Akki discovering the life of Malavika for his script.
Malavika was at some point married to a now famous star Ajay Chandran (Anoop Menon) who was just a struggling actor back in the old days. In his quest Akki meets the son of an old friend of Malavika and Ajay, the late director Abby (Renjith). Abby’s son gives him the diary of his father and some letters in which he had chronicled the story of Malavika and Ajay.
From this point the narration moves from present to the past seamlessly as Akki reads through the diary.
Malavika and Ajay Chandran met at a time when she was a successful actress and he a struggling artist. They fall in love in spite of the opposition by Malavika’s truant mother and eventually get married for which Malavika had to leave her entire fortune. Ajay is struggling to revive his career after a series of flops when Abby decides to direct a film casting Malavika and Ajay as the lead pair. Just then Malavika realizes that she is pregnant but Ajay forces her to abort the child. Soon after that she has to undergo another operation for minor growth in ovaries. Her close friend later confesses that her fallopian tubes were cut during that operation and she will never get pregnant again. Distraught and feeling betrayed Malavika thinks that Ajay did this purposefully and leaves him. She falls on tough times and ends up doing cameo roles before completely disapeering.
As Akki is trying to put this story together, he gets a call telling him the whereabouts of Malavika who was untraceable till now. He rushes there and realizes that she is terminally ill with cancer and looks really frail and wasted. He and his friends take her with them to take care of her.
Towards the end her dying wish is to meet Ajay and Akki persuades him to come. When the two meet we learn the mystery and the secrecy behind their separation. Malavika asks Ajay to take her to Cloud’s End, a bungalow in the hills where they first met. Ajay agrees.
Beautifully written with excellent direction and editing. Priyamani has done wonders and her transition through various stages of Malavika’s life is very touching. Anoop Menon is just another prop and fails to make any impact. Prithviraj, though not outstanding has carried off the role of the young director well. Overall, Priyamani shines out.
Beautifully told story. It won the national film award for best feature film in Malyalam in 2008.
(Do Watch)
1 comment:
Beautifully written. Makes me want to watch the movie :)
Keep going
- Avi
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