Nanpakal Nerathu Mayakkam
I remember having a discussion about Charlie Kaufman’s ‘Synecdoche, New York’ with a friend and how when I confessed my ignorance in getting my head around the story he said, with not a little air of condescension, “don’t try to understand, try to appreciate.” I tried then and I’ve tried now with Nanpakal Nerathu Mayakkam. But I can’t quite shake the idea of films being the most sophisticated means of storytelling off my head which leaves me almost incapable of reading into the movies things I can’t see. Of course unconventional ways of storytelling has to be humored, but it’s just not my cup of tea. The film takes you on a journey into the life of a character between two siestas; how a miserly Mallu, James who hates tamil, on the way back from Velankanni slips into the skin of a Tamilian in a remote Tamil village for no obvious reason than because he took a nap.
If recent films of the auteur Lijo Jose Pellissery show a pattern, it is a marked departure from narrative storytelling in favor of jarring images that more than just set the tone for the film. He makes his visuals poignant with their rawness, often to the point where you could wonder if they were unprocessed. But for me, it undercuts the dramatic tension in the the story and when it runs too close to reality, it might just as well be what David Bowie sings:
“the film is a saddening bore
For she’s lived it ten times or more,
She could spit in the eyes of fools
As they ask her to focus on.”
If recent films of the auteur Lijo Jose Pellissery show a pattern, it is a marked departure from narrative storytelling in favor of jarring images that more than just set the tone for the film. He makes his visuals poignant with their rawness, often to the point where you could wonder if they were unprocessed. But for me, it undercuts the dramatic tension in the the story and when it runs too close to reality, it might just as well be what David Bowie sings:
“the film is a saddening bore
For she’s lived it ten times or more,
She could spit in the eyes of fools
As they ask her to focus on.”
I’m sceptical of almost everything these days that I don’t watch something unless I get some real input on it. And it was how people can’t zip up about Mammooty’s performance in the movie that made me want to go to the cinemas. I wouldn’t say I’m disappointed but I don’t think he nailed it as Sundaram. His performance as a Tamilian stuck out in contrast to the other tamil actors. It appeared he fell short of incorporating into the character the vehemence and emotional virility of the language laced into the body language of the native tamil actors who, by the way, were awesome. But I wouldn’t be surprised if he took home an award or two for this.
#mammootty #lijojosepellissery #nanpakalnerathumayakkam