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Odiyan – A Review

Odiyan is the legendary clan of sorcerers from the region of Palakkad in Kerala, India, during the time when electricity had not reached the many towns in India. They were the shape shifters and they made a living by scaring people in the darkness of the night.

Hailing from the region of Palakkad, I have heard many a tale from my grandmother of how an Odiyan would scare people by changing their form to various animals, attack and immobilize them but not kill them (but leave them a mere vegetable); how they would take the foetus to use it for their black magic; the various people in the village that were attacked by Odiyan. Odiyan ruled the darkness and the night.

With all these tales in mind, I was very excited to watch Mohanlal’s Odiyan. I was very happy that I was able to relate to the movie and the proceedings.

This movie is certainly not for those that are looking for some Mohanlal type actions or for those that is expecting a horror story. Neither is it a superhero story as what it was promoted as.

This is a simple, yet poignant tale of the last Odiyan, a great, noble sorcerer, who returns to his village after 15 years to clear his name of a crime that he never committed and to safeguard the widows of the Kelakkam Tharavadu (Kelakkam House), to whom his clan is indebted to for generations.

Odiyan is also the story of the darkness within the human and the anecdotes that the fear and guilt creates.

Highlights and Lowlights

The non-linear story telling that is used by the director keeps the audience thinking and correlating the various pieces of this puzzle. Though the audience knows who the villain of this piece is,they are still looking for a convincing conclusion and yearns that justice is served.

Now infamous “Kanji Edukatte” scene – I consider this scene, particularly this dialogue to be the most powerful one as it is this dialogue that very clearly confirms that the Odiyan is once again welcomed into the Tharavadu. This scene, in that dilapidated setting, with the widows now tired and dreary, actually comes in as a ray of hope for them. The trust on the Odiyan is once again established.

Climax – The fight sequence choreographed by Peter Hein. Odiyan is restored to his full form, menacing to the wrong doers but gentle to the believers. A fantastically executed fight sequence, that which would leave the audience craving for more.

BGM – what an amazing score! It is so melodious yet haunting. The BGM becomes a character in the movie, clearly depicting the various moods of the principal characters – be it joy or pain.

Music – the beautiful and melodious songs are not a hindrance to the story. They actually serve to enhance the poignancy of the scene and/or move the story forward. The “Kondoram” song is beautifully shot in the Athirapalli Falls locale.

The underlying love between the lady of the Tharavadu and Odiyan is beautifully woven. There is no lust, just pure pristine love – the Thambrati that is mesmerized, just like a kid, by the shape shifting capabilities of the Odiyan and the Odiyan’s devout strong bond of gratitude for this Tharavadu.

Mohanlal – is certainly a fantastic actor. The way he has reduced his weight to portray a younger self is amazing. The way he expresses his gratitude to this Tharavadu; how he menaces the people that does wrong to him; how he ends the villain thereby serving justice – all just amazing. There are two scenes where Mohanlal scores as an actor – the one where he is on his knees, pleading his innocence, trying to explain to the Thambrati that he is not the culprit, the reason for the pathetic state of the widowed sisters of the Tharavadu. That imagery will haunt the viewers for a long time. The other scene is in the song sequence where he is shown as loathing what he does for living; he sees a bull in his shadow and shows surprise, fear, anger and self pity – all at once. Wow!

Manju Warrier – in her second innings, is cautious about her roles. And in Odiyan, she had gotten a meaty one, for her to happily sink her teeth in. She displays the vulnerability, yet the strength in her character, very easily. She, in a weird way is the reason for all hatred and the subsequent deterioration for one and all. Her face and her eyes speak more than her dialogues. Be it the scene where she is waiting for the Odiyan to appear as the deer in her front yard or the one where she spews anger on Odiyan or when she realizes the truth and accepts Odiyan back into the Tharavadu or when she nods to show her gratitude for saving the Tharavadu, or the one where she tells her sister’s teen-aged son “sometimes what we hear need not be the truth”, she is just amazing. It is a real treat to watch her on screen.

Sana Althaf – the blind sister and the widow of the Kelakkam Tharavadu. She is such a natural actor that she is very convincing as real blind person. She is the core of this piece and the only believer of Odiyan’s innocence.

Prakash Raj – the perfect, menacing villain, with no ethics whatsoever. He oozes venom all over and his lustful gait will certainly be nauseating. Though in today’s world, his nickname in the movie, Kariman, denoting black and also his bad character, can be considered racist, it has to be taken with a grain of salt for this is set in a period when there was no electricity. A period drama, when such names were absolutely fine.  The director could have utilized his skills even better. Though, his voice over in Malayalam was quite good, I still missed his original voice, which would have been even more ravaging.

Cinematography was apt with a tinge of yellow throughout. The Art Director should be given kudos for erecting a set to depict the village of Thenkurissi without electricity. They had ensured that all the electric poles were missing. Mamooty’s deep voice in the background to narrate the story is a classic touch.

Direction by V A Shrikumar Menon, in his first movie has done a good job of narrating this tale of the lost legendary character of Odiyan. Kudos to him for taking on a tough subject, with no real data or historical records and bringing Harikrishnan’s story of Odiyan, to life. Shrikumar will certainly go places as he grows in the industry, as he learns how to please the audience even better.

My Rating:

4.25 / 5 ?

Don’t miss this drama if you are a fan of folklores and legendary characters. A different taste served to us, to savour.

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SOLO (Tamil) – a Review

This is an experimental art film by Bejoy Nambiar. It is an anthology of 4 unconnected short stories woven together through the four tangible elements of nature – water, air, fire and earth, which can all be destructive. The name of the protagonist in each story is a version of Lord Siva, the destroyer. Each simple story has an unexpected twist, sometimes pushing the boundaries.

WATER – Shankar

This is the story of the tender love between Shankar and a blind dancer Radhika. The strong bond of love between the two Is captured as a beautiful flowing poem of water. This story is narrated in a non-linear fashion with a twist towards the penultimate reels. The last scene in the beach is very tender and poignant.

Water, the element, plays a key role in this story and is ever present. It becomes one of the protagonists.

Dulquer Salmaan as Shankar and Dhansika as the blind dancer have excelled in their roles. This is the only story with a few songs. Music is apt.

AIR – Trilok

This is a story of revenge. There are two accidents – in one the victim is left to die a pathetic death. In the other, the victim is very quickly taken to the hospital, to be saved. The veterinary doctor Trilok – is he the saviour or…?

True to the element in this story, the air, the protagonist is just like air, which is there all around us as an envelope but is not seen. You can only feel the air, if the air wishes! Can air be destructive? Yes, it can, when it picks up speed and becomes the strong gusting winds.

The accident scenes are captured so realistically in this story. Kudos to the cinematography team. Once again Dulquer Salmaan has excelled as Dr. Trilok. Ann Augustine and Aditi Venkatesh have done their parts well, along with the supporting cast. Music is apt.

FIRE – Siva

This is the story of ruthless dons and the underbelly of Mumbai. Siva who works under a local don, is very protective of his younger brother as their mother leaves them and their father when they were young. Though he is a goon, Siva does not want his brother to be one. However, the brother takes up arms. Siva has a wife, Rukku, and a baby. Rukku hates the fact that Siva is becoming a don. Everything goes haywire when Siva goes in search of his father’s killer.

The element fire can be scene and felt in each scene – be it the Sparks that fly between characters or the ruthless killings. Just as how fire destroys everything on its path, there is destruction everywhere – both the physical and the metaphorical- everything is burnt to ashes. The background score of Aigiri Nandini, the Mahisasura Mardhini Stotram) elevates the rage and tension in the story.

The scene where Siva meets his mother in the end is amazing. Once again Dulquer Salmaan excelled as the young and angry Siva. His face speaks volumes in this story (as he does not have much dialogues to deliver). Shruthi Hariharan has provided adequate support as Rukku. Music perpetrated with Aigiri Nandini elevates the mood.

EARTH – Rudra

Rudra and Bhama are the kids of army officers and have grown together since their childhood. Their infatuation blooms into deep, destructive love. Bhama’s father opposes their love and tries to find a groom for Bhama, while Rudra spoils all the wedding plans by Bhama’s father. Bhama leaves for higher studies in Australia and suddenly terminates their relationship. What was the reason? Is there more murky secrets hidden in the closets?

The background of Army is very apt for this story of Earth. When the monster comes out of the closet, it can be deemed earth shattering and it certainly has the potential to stir up all controversies if ignored. Watch out for the bold twist that can destroy everything.

Dulquer Salmaan just fits into the role of the Army officer and also that if the lover boy very easily. Neha Sharma as the bubbly vivacious Bhama is just great. The way she had acted and her lip sync was so good that nobody would believe that she does not know the language. Music is just perfect.

SOLO

The USP of this movie is the anthology of strong stories and the fantastic action by Dulquer Salmaan. Dulquer’s mannerisms, body language and acting shows the variance in each character and one would only see the character, forgetting that it is the same person acting. Each element that is predominant in the story comes to life in every scene. The underlying theme of Siva and destruction is beautifully, poignantly and at the same time subtly brought to life on screen The music becomes one with the story. Though this is an experimental art film, the movie does not lag at any point.

The English title of the movie is also very apt. Solo – our protagonist is unfortunately solo at the end…

My Verdict:

4 / 5

If you are a lover of different (zara hat-ke), artistic movies, rich in characters and story, don’t miss this one.

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ROOM (2015) – A Review

Cast:
Brie Larson
Jacob Trembley

Direction:
Lenny Abrahamson

Synopsis:
ROOM is a profound story of a mother, raising her son in captivity. They are kept captive by her abductor and tormentor, in a shed, with no windows except for a skylight, their window to the sky. How they escape their ill fate and later cope in the real world forms the crux of the story. It is a tale of endurance and boundless love between a mother and her child.

Highlights:
Though this movie is rated R for the strong, mature content (captivity, physical and mental torture), the narrative is through the eyes of this 5 year-old boy. He is the star here and it is all about what he sees – good bad and the real ugly too. Even though this child is a witness to menace and torment, the innocence in this little child is brought out in every scene. For example, this boy diligently says Good Morning to each and every inanimate thing in the ROOM every morning – as they are all his friends; the world that exists in TV is not real for him.

In this movie, the ROOM plays an integral part and becomes a protagonist. It is in this room the child is born. It is here that the mother and son create their own world and spend time as they have been kept locked in this ROOM (which is nothing but a shed) for seven years. The only other person that comes into the room is their captor. He keeps the only door to this ROOM always locked (with a digital code). Though this ROOM is right in the middle of a nice neighbourhood, no one even knows that this mother and child exist in this shed.

The way the mother teaches her son the existence of an outside real world – the wall of the ROOM and the inside-outside concept, which he talks about later in the movie when he is free and in the real world – he says, each wall leads to another and yet another wall is there outside.

The director has taken utmost care to depict some of the minor details – like how the boy adjusts to the free world; he was born in captivity and has never seen an actual house – the way he struggles for climbing a flight of steps; how he marvels at the world outside the big window at the hospital; and how his eyes are not adjusted to the sunlight and he has to wear sunglasses; etc.

Clever use of fetal position – per psychologists, if someone is in tremendous mental pain or is extremely frightened, they curl themselves into the fetal position. The primary position while in the safety of the mother’s womb. A number of times both the protagonists get into this position showing what they are undergoing without exchanging any words.

The boy is only aware of one safe person – his mom. To provide comfort to this boy, the mother gives him her broken tooth, so that he could carry a part of her always, as his guardian angel. When they devise the plan to escape, he clings to this tooth as a part of his mother; he keeps this tooth safe and shows it to his grandmother at another instance in the movie, telling her that his mother was always with him.

When the mother and son return to the ROOM one final time, escorted by the police, the boy very casually says, “The room has shrunk”. This is so true, in our day-to-day lives. Once our knowledge increases in any area, what we originally knew would become negligible. It shrinks. These are such powerful words that we can all relate to and might have used (when we move from a village to a city, the village actually shrinks in our perception).

Lowlights:
Though I couldn’t find anything wrong in the movie, the only thing that could be deemed, as flaw is the explanation given for the abduction. Would a 17 year old be so naive to walk with a stranger to help a puppy? That being said, it is very well possible as 17 is certainly the age when kids want to behave as adults and can very well get themselves into trouble.

Acting:
Brie Larson absolutely deserved the Oscar that she got. The way she showed her frustrations, her pain all through the eyes and facial expressions is just amazing. It will haunt you for a while. The two scenes (according to me) that will be etched in the viewers’ memory for sometime are –

  • the one where she is freed and she meets her son; they see each other through the window of the police car – the son inside and the mother outside, with blaring sirens.
  • the one last time that the mother and son visit the room; the son says goodbye to each and every item in the ROOM and leaves, just very casually, while the mother stares into the room – what a haunting look…

Jacob Trembley, the Vancouver wonder is just a delight to watch. He has got some of the most powerful dialogues in the movie and he delivers them with so much ease, in a very matter of fact way. He is innocence personified. The way he is content in the ROOM and how he shows his anger and fear is simply amazing. Words aren’t enough to praise this young actor. No particular scene can be quoted as the best for Jacob Trembley’s character. Every scene he is in, is a gem and can tell a tale on its own, giving you Goosebumps.

Supporting casts – have all done their job to perfection. Each person very apt for the role – be it the tormentor that oozes menace and sadism in his looks; the mother who has gotten her little girl (now grown and with a son) back after many years and want to support her; the mothers boyfriend who is very inviting and tries to bond with the little boy; the girl’s father who is not able to accept the truth in his little daughter’s life.

My Verdict:
This is neither a tearjerker nor a movie that preaches about right and wrong. Immerse yourself, get involved and watch this movie. You will come out with a heavy heart and a lump in your throat. Certainly NOT to be missed.

5/5

Post Script:
Just a while ago, I had written a poem on “Lost Souls” based on those people that have gone missing. In Canada we have a number of people that go missing each year. Many are found and returned safely to their homes. For quite a few, unfortunately it is their mortal remains that are found. However, there are a few that are never found and their files are closed as unsolved cases and their families never have a closure.
 
This movie, “The ROOM” which is about one such missing person, made me wonder as to how many such missing persons are held captives in a shed or a basement – right in the middle of any wonderful neighbourhood – that we cannot even imagine and our senses would deny to accept.
 
Would we ever find them all? Would there be a closure, ever for these Lost Souls?

Lost Souls

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Origin – A Review

May our philosophies keep pace with our technologies. May our compassion keep pace with our powers. And may love, not fear, be the engine of change!

Origin – the latest science fiction mystery thriller best seller by Dan Brown. Brown attempts to answer the most intriguing universal mysteries of mankind – human creation and human destiny; in other words, where did we come from and where are we going? In a typical Brownish way, he answers these questions, stirring up a hornets’ nest, treading between science and religion through his favourite character, Professor Robert Langdon; trying to prove or un-prove – The dark religions are departed and sweet science reigns. Leaving it open for interpretation.

Edmond Kirsch, a futurist and an atheist, who blames the Palmarian Church for the death of his mother, meets the three most powerful religious leaders (Roman Catholic Bishop Antonio Valdespino, Jewish Rabbi Yehuda Köves, and Muslim Allamah Syed al-Fadl) in Catalonia, Spain. He informs them about his discovery and how it was going to be the end of all religions. Soon after that meeting, two of three leaders (Jewish Rabbi and Muslim Allamah) are brutally murdered. Despite a warning voicemail from Bishop Valdespino, Kirsch was going to go ahead and announce to the world his discovery at the Guggenhiem museum in Bilbao, whose director is Ambra Vidal, the future queen of Spain.

That evening, Spain is in turmoil with the ailing king who is breathing his last and the future king, a modernist, torn between religion and modernism. In this dramatic setting, right after Kirsch completes his introductory presentation and just before announcing the big discovery, he is murdered even more dramatically right in the presence of the hundreds that had gathered at the museum and over millions that were watching his presentation. From that point, starts the cat and mouse game – Langdon and Vidal wanting to find the 47letter password (a line from Kirsch’s favourite poem) that would help them release to the world, his discovery. Langdon and Vidal are aided by Winston, who is Kirsch’s most sincere and devoted personal secretory, an AI (Artificial Intelligence, a computer sitting in a remote lab in Spain).

How Langdon and Vidal find the password and release the discovery, fighting all odds and perils on the way forms the crux of the novel. We know right from the beginning, the involvement of a person called “Reagent” in the murders. However, who is this Reagent who is orchestrating the events that night? What is the Reagent’s motive? The needle of doubt moves from the surviving Bishop Valdespino, to the prince and future king of Spain, to the ailing king who is out there to protect the religion, to the pope of the Palmarian Church, to the others in the Royal Palace – each having their own strong motive to ensure that the discovery is buried deep down, never to surface, ever.

Though Kirsch’s discovery is unfolded and narrated in a very convincing way, neither his theory on creation nor destiny is actually jaw dropping. It is the identity of the Reagent that comes as a shock. There is a lot of food for thought at the end, and if that’s what the future holds, it certainly is scary. And Science, in a weird way, ominously fulfills the religions’ philosophy, as quoted by Brown, in this novel

  • Historically, the most dangerous men on earth were men of God… especially when their God’s became threatened.
  • Martyrdom is at the heart of all religion.

The timing of the release of this novel is just amazing – right when Sophia robot is garnering all attention as she is the first robot to be given citizenship (Saudi Arabia) and the various interviews with Sophia that are available in the internet. We can see the bubble forming, wherein all over the world everything is moving towards automation and Artificial Intelligence is becoming the core processors, eliminating all the regular low paid jobs, in the near future. The kind of human destiny that Kirsch predicts may actually not be that far away, after all…

This book is certainly worth the read, for its fast paced action packed drama – will certainly be a page-turner until the very end…

My rating – 4.25/5

A few quotes from the book that I liked

… the teachings of all religions had did indeed have one thing in common. They were all dead wrong.

When you see me face-to-face, I’ll reveal the empty space.

From the depths of my deepest despair, I have risen to the moment of my most glorious service.

Whoever fights monsters should see to it that in the process he does not become a monster

My friends, I warn you, evil will swallow us whole if we do not fight force with force. We will never conquer evil if our battle cry is “forgiveness “.

The Expanding eyes of Man behold the depths of wondrous worlds

Life not only obeys the laws of physics, but that life began because of those laws.

Love is from another realm. We cannot manufacture it on demand. Nor can we subdue it when it appears. Love is not our choice to make.

Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.

Sometimes, all you have to do is shift your perspective to see someone else’s truth.

Love truly is not a finite emotion. It can be generated spontaneously out of nothing at all.