Aparan (The Other)

So, I saw another Padmarajan movie 😊

This one is also a mystery\thriller. Unfortunately, the print I had, had very sketchy subtitles. This did ruin the movie a little bit. It’s a little distracting when you are not able to understand what the people are saying on the screen. Despite that I hope I can do justice to this review.

Vishwanathan (Jayaram) is a young man in a small Kerala village. He lives with his parents and sister and is looking for jobs. Apparently, he has been to quite a few interviews but without any success. The family who is waiting to get the younger daughter married, is eagerly waiting for Vishwanathan to find a job.

He gets an interview call for a job in Kochi. While there, he steps into a restaurant for some tea and is accosted by two goons. They accuse him of stealing money and start beating him. Vishwanathan begs them and tries to explain that they are mistaking him for someone else but they don’t pay any heed. Eventually the police arrive. They arrest Vishwanathan and accuse him of being an infamous fraudster. Fortunately, the chief of that police station turns out to be George Kutty (Mukesh) an old classmate of Vishwanathan and he releases him.  

It turns out that there is a doppelganger of Vishwanathan who is a criminal. Even police have limited knowledge of his background and identity. Eventually Vishwanathan joins the company in Kochi. There he meets Ambili (Shobhana) and falls in love with her. One fine day, Ambili accuses Vishwanathan of abusing her in an auto. Thankfully, he was in office with his boss at that time and manages to convince Ambili of this doppelganger. Soon, people start coming up to him accusing him of cheating them, so much so that his sister’s betrothal breaks because the uncle of the groom accuses him of pickpocketing. In a similar misunderstanding with his boss, he also ends up losing his job.  

Vishwanathan decides to find out about this lookalike and bring him to justice. With the help of George, he finds out his background and learns that he was an orphan and a little older than him. He decides to impersonate the evil doppelganger and starts hanging out at his frequented places. Eventually someone mistakes him for the criminal and takes him to a remote location. Another man ends up paying him 1 Lakh for killing someone and another 50K for a second murder.

Vishwanathan comes back and decides to run away with the money. He is about to go to his native village when a phone call comes for him. This is the evil lookalike. He demands his money.

Vishwanathan still manages to run away to his native with the criminal in pursuit. After making sure that he has evaded the criminal, he makes his way to his home only to see his family crying near a dead body. Apparently, its him.

This movie could easily have passed off for a Hitchcock. In fact, mistaken identity is the theme of “North by Northwest”. But that’s where the similarity in the plot ends, and it is as riveting as any Hitchcock. It will keep you riveted to your seat.

The fact is that you never really see the evil doppelganger, and only hear him once through the phone call. You still end up hating this faceless, nameless criminal. You feel sorry for the poor protagonist, who for no fault of his is caught up in this web. You pray and wish that the criminal is caught and pays dearly for the trouble he has caused. This is no small feat in movie making.

Building a persona just in our minds, is a work of pure genius. Additionally, at times you don’t really know who is who. Given the circumstances, can Vishwanathan also become his doppelganger, especially when he is trying to impersonate him. The duality keeps you on edge throughout the second half.

In the last scene when you see Vishwanathan smirking, you aren’t really sure, if it’s him or his doppelganger or if he has actually become the criminal.

Jayaram has done full justice to the role. From an innocent village boy to a desperate man defeated by this unknown lookalike and then to man on a mission to find the one who has tortured him, he slips into these personas with ease. Shobhana hardly has any screen time and rest of the cast doesn’t leave an impression. But then it is not their story, it is the story of Vishwanathan and "the other".

Do watch.

Nadodikattu… (Wandering Wind)

So the thing about movies in languages you don’t understand is that you either enjoy a brilliant storyline or superb performances or something that makes the movie worth watching in that language and not the one you actually can understand. So even if a movie might be entertaining, to a person who does not understand the language it will come across as very mediocre because it is like one of the million movies that one has already seen.



Nadodikattu is one such movie. Bringing Mohanlal and Sreenivasan pair to the screen, in their early days, the movie is no doubt a typical masala movie. It reminded me of the countless Manmohan Desai kind of films I have seen and enjoyed.

Ramdas aka Dasan (Mohanlal) and Vijayan (Sreenivasan) are two friends working in a company as peons and dreaming of steady government jobs. Dasan is slightly high and mighty on account of his being a B.Com. graduate while Vijayan has only done Pre degree. They eagerly wait for the new MD to join so that they can request him to give them appropriate jobs. By some quirk of fate instead they get thrown out of the office. Their landlord helps them get a loan from the bank to start selling cow’s milk and ends up selling them sub-standard cows so that they are unable to make ends meet. With loan sharks behind their backs they decide to bribe a boatman to take them to gulf. Instead the boatman tricks them and they end up in Chennai. On the beach a bunch of smuggles mistake them for smugglers and hand them a suitcase full of narcotics. Like any law abiding citizens they take it to the police and end up in police custody. What follows is cat and mouse chase where the don ends up thinking that Dasan and Vijayan are CID sleuths.

Meanwhile, in Chennai they take up a house for rent and their neighbor is Radha (Shobhana) and her mother. Dasan and Radha develop a special bond and Radha helps him start selling vegetables. A local politician tries to get them to vacate their houses so that he can build a hospital on that land. Dasan tries to stop him and his goon. Through all the confusion ultimately both the don and the politician want to kill Dasan and Vijayan. The final climax happens in an abandoned mill where the politician and the don are finally arrested by the police. Police, to award Dasan and Vijayan gives them jobs in the force. And all live happily ever after…

Like a said a typical eighties movie combining social problems (unemployment, crime and poverty) with right amount of lightheartedness, romance, fights and happy endings. You will appreciate the movie if you understand the local nuances.

For people who do not understand Malyalam,

(Can Skip)

Manichitrathazhu (The Ornate Lock)

A poignant story of how our mind can trick us into believing anything and how our lives our shaped by the baggage of the past we carry. Dealt with subtlety, carefully etched out characters and realistic humor make the movie a must see.

For me this movie is one of the finest examples of what cinema is all about – engrossing two hours of complete entertainment.

A young couple (Suresh Gopi and Shobhana) move into their ancestral home and are plagued by small inexplicable accidents. Not attributing it to blind superstition and suspecting potential mental illness of one of his cousins (Vinaya Prrasad), Nakulan (Suresh Gopi) calls on his friend (Mohanlal as Dr. Sunny Joseph)who is a famous psychiatrist in America currently travelling in India. Mohanlal makes his appearance close to the interval and from then on movie takes the form of this thrilling psychodrama with brilliant twist in the tale.

The plot revolves around Dr. Sunny uncovering the source of the strange happenings at the mansion and helping the protagonist recover from her affliction. Mohanlal plays the character of slightly eccentric shrink with ridiculous histrionics which leaves you in splits. Though central to the movie the character is subdued and nowhere overshadows the movie.


This movie definitely belongs to Shobhana who plays the protagonist, for the portrayal of innocent, loving and simple Ganga and the fierce, passionate and revengeful Nagavalli. There is actually a scene in which she transforms from one character to another in front of Dr. Sunny which leaves you completely spellbound. Beautiful haunting music which will echo in your ears much after you are done watching the movie.

Fazil must be applauded on his superb direction, though there are one or two scenes which are on the verge of melodrama.

The success of the movie led it to be remade in almost all major the “woods” of Kannada, Tamil, Telugu, Bengali and finally Hindi. The DVD is available with subtitles at the leading stores.

(Must Watch)