Finally a Blessy movie which makes some sense...
After having watched Bhramaran and Calcutta news, I had lost faith in his direction but Thanmathra proves that it’s not a lose cause yet. The movie begins with the life of a simple man Ramesan Nair (Mohanlal). He lives with his wife Lekha (Meera Vaasudevan), son Manu (Arjun Lal) and daughter. He works at the secretariat. His aim is to make sure that his son becomes an IAS officer. He is absolutely involved in bringing up his kids, teaching them and is himself has a very gifted memory and even lectures at his son’s school on memory techniques.
His is a small and perfect family.
The first anomaly we see is when at his hometown he forgets the nickname of a childhood friend. Not much later he forgets the lyrics of one of his favorite songs. This really frustrates him and he rushes out of a bath without drying himself when he remembers the lyrics. Slowly after that his life starts unraveling and he forgets an important file in the freezer. He even goes to the doctor who initially attributes his forgetfulness to the stress caused due to his son being in class XII.
But then he turns up at office one day with vegetables and behaves as if he is at home. Soon the situation gets out of hand and his good friend Joseph takes him to the hospital. His father (Nedumudi Venu) also comes from the village. The doctor informs the family that Ramesh is suffering from Alzheimer’s and the family needs to be prepared for it. Throughout this the son Manu behaves very maturely and handles the entire crisis.
Ramesh’s father decides to move the family back to the ancestral home so that they can take care of Ramesh. Thereon we see slowly the degeneration of Ramesh while his family watches.
The movie is well directed especially because it tackles an issue like Alzheimer’s very sensitively. While watching the movie, initially I felt that the director is rambling aimlessly but after he starts showing the effects of memory loss on Ramesh you realize the importance of the initial background the director gave. In my personal opinion the technique of moving between past and present that Blessy later used in Bhramaran could have made this film a little crisp. Nevertheless he successfully tells the story of Ramesh in a very poignant manner.
What disappointed me in this movie are the performances. The fundamental reason for that could be that the actors and the director might not have done their background research in actually studying a patient of Alzheimer’s. To understand the nuances of their behavior, to see how the disease reduces a person to a vegetable, you actually have to spend some time with a person suffering from it and with the family taking care of the patient. But our Indian actors are above all this. They can just wake up and play any character. As a result Mohanlal’s performance is melodramatic and all Meera Vasudevan does on the screen is cry. Arjun Lal, looks extremely unnatural as the dutiful son.
The film has its moments but falls short of expectations.
(Can Skip)
After having watched Bhramaran and Calcutta news, I had lost faith in his direction but Thanmathra proves that it’s not a lose cause yet. The movie begins with the life of a simple man Ramesan Nair (Mohanlal). He lives with his wife Lekha (Meera Vaasudevan), son Manu (Arjun Lal) and daughter. He works at the secretariat. His aim is to make sure that his son becomes an IAS officer. He is absolutely involved in bringing up his kids, teaching them and is himself has a very gifted memory and even lectures at his son’s school on memory techniques.
His is a small and perfect family.
The first anomaly we see is when at his hometown he forgets the nickname of a childhood friend. Not much later he forgets the lyrics of one of his favorite songs. This really frustrates him and he rushes out of a bath without drying himself when he remembers the lyrics. Slowly after that his life starts unraveling and he forgets an important file in the freezer. He even goes to the doctor who initially attributes his forgetfulness to the stress caused due to his son being in class XII.
But then he turns up at office one day with vegetables and behaves as if he is at home. Soon the situation gets out of hand and his good friend Joseph takes him to the hospital. His father (Nedumudi Venu) also comes from the village. The doctor informs the family that Ramesh is suffering from Alzheimer’s and the family needs to be prepared for it. Throughout this the son Manu behaves very maturely and handles the entire crisis.
Ramesh’s father decides to move the family back to the ancestral home so that they can take care of Ramesh. Thereon we see slowly the degeneration of Ramesh while his family watches.
The movie is well directed especially because it tackles an issue like Alzheimer’s very sensitively. While watching the movie, initially I felt that the director is rambling aimlessly but after he starts showing the effects of memory loss on Ramesh you realize the importance of the initial background the director gave. In my personal opinion the technique of moving between past and present that Blessy later used in Bhramaran could have made this film a little crisp. Nevertheless he successfully tells the story of Ramesh in a very poignant manner.
What disappointed me in this movie are the performances. The fundamental reason for that could be that the actors and the director might not have done their background research in actually studying a patient of Alzheimer’s. To understand the nuances of their behavior, to see how the disease reduces a person to a vegetable, you actually have to spend some time with a person suffering from it and with the family taking care of the patient. But our Indian actors are above all this. They can just wake up and play any character. As a result Mohanlal’s performance is melodramatic and all Meera Vasudevan does on the screen is cry. Arjun Lal, looks extremely unnatural as the dutiful son.
The film has its moments but falls short of expectations.
(Can Skip)
1 comment:
Watch 'Kazhcha'...Blessy's first film and best film so far..
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