Aug 08, 2006 09:08 PM
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Why or How a girl is been trapped into prostitution? How she enjoy it? Or did she really enjoy it? What is the psychology of a simple person who is taking away the virginity of a girl without knowing that she was a virgin? How a woman in love can see her lover's relation with another girl, especially knowing she is a prostitute? If you want to go through answers for all these questions presented in an enjoyable family format, Thoovanathumbikal is the answer.
The story reveals around 3 characters, Mohanlal, who plays the simple man living in a village, but having a different face when he have a weekly outing to the city, Sumalatha plays a character of a prostitute, (she was living in a bad environment where she was suppose to do prostitution today or later) decided to do it in her own will & her own way. Parvathy plays a homely girl, first hate the character of Mohanlal, but later admired to him which leads to love. Mohanlal's character became the one which took away the virginity of Sumalata's character. The story grows as Sumalatha run away from Mohanlal and Parvathy fall in love with Mohanlal. Sumalatha is returning and the story is going through a nail biting stage.
Star performance – Excellent. There are certain characters which only can be played by Mohanlal and this is one of them. Acting Dostoevsky is one milestone in the acting career of this great actor of world cinema. Sumalatha played her career best performance and Parvathy did her job convincingly and Jagathy did his part in style. Asokan also done a fine acting.
Music /Choreography – Thoovanathumbikal is a film where we don't need not to think of Choreography and Music different from the plot. Even after 20 years of the release of the movie, the background music and the music live in the hearts of people. Even now I can hum the background music which well supported the plot. In fact the BGM and the Music become one body and soul in this film.and together with fine choreography the whole movie became a poem or a good music or a good song, whatever name you call it.
Story/Screenplay/Direction
A story adopted from Dostoevsky when narrated by the master screen play writer and director in Indian cinema, Padmarajan we cannot expect nothing but a fine product and Padmarajan don't allow us to repent.
When Sumalatha explain how she was faced with walls, we wonder how often we are faced with walls. When the waves of the sea push Sumalatha the director don't waste time shooting the waves, he shot the face of Sumalatha, but we feel the hitting of the waves. There are a lot of scenes one can only watch with wonder.
Dostoevsky is my favorite author in any language. His capacity to analyze human mind is unmatchable. Where he describes a character he do it in perfection and invite the reader to intrude into the mind of the character and follow the story as the character. He could do this because of his ability to identify with the characters on one hand and due to the 'personal touch' he gives to the characters. Many a times he himself is the leading character. 'Idiot' is a novel, where he narrated a 'love' story where the characters are the same, where he is the leading man. You can identify Dostoevsky in Idiot only if you read his biography easily.
Padmarajan is may favorite Director for the film Thoovanathumbikal. In fact he is the (arguably) best screenplaywriter in Malayalam. He is a legend as his own, where his Thoovanathumbikal, Njan Gandharvan, Namukku Parkan Munthirithoppukal etc deserves more than respect from us. And no doubt, Mohalal is my favorite actor in any language. In fact I have seen the film Thoovanathumbikal for more than 10 times and wondered how Padmarajan convinced such a character. Not before I read the Idiot second time recently.
Priyadrasan is believed to be the king of remakes. The way Priyadarsan remakes the movies one will wonder how he get the curiosity to do so. But Padmarajan perplexed me with his talent he injected into replanting of characters into the land of Gods Own Country. This remake of characters or say adoption of characters is sheer exhibition of talent and excellence, which only can be delivered by a true genius.
Mohalnlal plays the character of Prince Myskin (Dostoevsky himself), Sumalatha plays the character of Anasthasya Philippanova and Parvathy of Aglea. Jagathy plays the over talkative Ippolet.
It is not true that it is a lifting of story. What Padmarajan did was filled the blank created by Dostoevsky in Idiot. While reading Idiot, I was curious how Anasthasya Philippanova reached that stage. Padmarajan in fact imagined and try to link the reason to the original story to have more sense. In Idiot Philippanova enters from where Padmarajan released her from Mohalal. But he cunningly mixed the sequences and followed the same scene where Philippanova approaches the Prince for marriage. Similarly, the character of Aglea is also represent a lady who has been interested in Dostoevsky, but in the real life and in the novel Idiot, there had 3 sisters. In Idiot the love angle of the sisters are omitted. But Padmarajan excluded those 2 sisters themselves from prominent spots. Some scenes he maintained from the novel, but tried to give life and reason to the plot. The novel Idiot was in fact a failure, because of over talking by Ippolet. But Padmarajan controlled the character of Ippolet and limited to the minimum, but keeping the character intact, but planted into the kerala culture. That made Jagathy's character unforgettable. Where the story goes out of Dostoevsky's hand in the last few chapters, Padmarajan maintained his grip on the plot till end to make it as a visual treat. This is a classical example of how to improvise on world classic characters. Had Dostoevsky could see the movie Thoovanathumbikal, he would have hugged Padmarajan for this outstanding effort, who by the way is world class at any standards.
Strength of the story, Novelty of the theme, perfect acting, good direction, good music, suspense in the plot…
Thoovanathumbikal is an unforgettable movie by a legend for studies for any person who wanted to step in the field of screen play writing or direction. But for audience it is a visual experience one cannot forget easily.
A must watch movie!!!
