Sunday, April 16, 2006

RASATANTRAM

Vishaya dharidryam... even Sathyan Anthikkad is facing that. All through the movie I sat there confused, trying to make out what our dear Sathyan Anthikkad was trying to convey through this movie. And finally after three long hours I am still confused. Was it the plight of old parents, old age homes... but then you already had all this in Manasinakkare. Or was it the old cliched, money vs ideology, rich son vs poor son (who has the dad in his side)?? Other than that I can't think of any, what was it?. So many characters so many stories... aakepade oru aviyal paruvam.

And all through there was this un-mistakable smell of a Tanmatra. After all, if you look carefully there is a TANMATRA hiding in RASATANTRAM --> RAS-ATANTRAM --> SAR -(ithu)-TANMATRA (thanne)!! :). There is this scene of a son's devotion to his father, of Mohanlal giving an oil massage to Bharath Gopi. Haven't we seen the same with Nedumudi. Well, after his successful(?) achar and restaurant business is Lal venturing into Thailam business??. Definitely a conscious attempt to gain mileage from Tanmatra's success. Making Lal give all those lofty statements about anything and everything around, from taking a dig at Malayali's penchant for building posh mansions, to Newton's first law... although he does it remarkably well, Laline oru upadeshi aakan aano bhavam?. Mohalalinte oru gathikedu nokkane... once a character clicks, an umpteen number of clones will be made, till each and every one is totaly fed up and disgusted. I am not saying Rasatantram will click, but another one like this... it is done. Why can't our poor Lal get the kind of characters that Big B is so easily getting in Bollywood, a khakee, a sarkar... Mammukka is so lucky in this regard.

Coming back to the movie, there are these umpteen number of characters. Aarkku vendi enthinu vendi??. Some totally useless. Why do you have to waste a Jagathi , a Mukesh and even a TG Ravi (only in two frames!), for completely useless and un-important characters? Sad to say for the first time ever I got irritated with a Jagathi character!. Again sad to say, with due respect, Innocentinteyum Mammukoyayudeyum phalitham onnum pande pole phalikkunilla !!

Given all these, Rasathantram is still a very much watchable movie. Lal does well (the comic timing is slowly coming back?), so too is Bharath Gopi, there is a nice "rasathantram" between them. Meera is as beautiful and as refreshing as always. There are some very nice songs. And Thodupuzha and surroundings make a beautiful background for the story. But Sathyan Anthikkad and Mohanlal after so many years- expected a lot and got very little in return- so disappointing.

4 comments:

Brijesh Nair said...

My parents also watched it and they told me that movie was little dragging in the middle.But they like it in general.

vilakudy said...

I agree with you on many observations. But no on one. Sathyan could not bring that old Lal into our minds. He failed on that count though he claim otherwise. It is an average movie.

Anonymous said...

anyone can create a blog and write all asinine things...btw what message did u convey? i'm still confused...

aniSH... said...

Anony: സത്യം!. ഇതെഴുതിയപ്പൊള്‍ "message" രണ്ടു പേര്‍ക്ക് അറിയാമായിരുന്നു, എനിക്കും ദൈവത്തിനും.ഇപ്പോള്‍ അതു അദ്ദേഹത്തിനു മാത്രമേ അറിയൂ... അങ്ങോട്ടു തന്നെ ചോദിക്കുക.