Young filmmakers who dare to dream are changing the way we look at cinema in a way we never really thought would happen. Regional cinema is showing the way, especially Tamil and of late Telugu, which took some time to cast off its tough old stereotyped look.
Malayalam cinema, which was a tad more progressive than other languages in the latter years of the last century, was caught in the stranglehold of the star-value system in the last decade. But change is coming about slowly, and many young directors like Ranjit Shankar, Amal Neerad, Anwar Rasheed, Rajesh Pillai, Mohan Raghavan and others are bringing in that much needed change to the grammar and sensitivity of cinema, breaking away from formulaic stuff that dishes out a ready reckoner of two fights, three fights, plus four chases.
Soorya Krishnamoorthy
The latest entrant to this young brigade is Madhav Ramadasan, director of Mark Films' ‘Melvilasam', the movie, made from the play, in the same name. This play is by Soorya Krishnamoorthy, and is based on ‘Court Martial', a play by Swadesh Deepak. Soorya Krishnamurthy wrote the script for the movie too, a tight one in which interest never ever lags. Else how could a movie, under two hours, with a single location, a court room, with no women, save a little girl in two scenes, be this absorbing?
“It took just 10 days to shoot,” says Madhav. But he had been planning his debut feature film for five full years, having assisted Sarath in his movies. “I even shot the play when it was staged, apart from the fact that I saw it 15 times,” Madhav says, before he finalised the big screen version of it. Casting is a strong point, with Suresh Gopi defending Parthiban, accused of shooting one officer dead and wounding two others. The seamy side of some in the Services is brought to light in the court martial and fingers pointed at a culture that gives no weightage to humane feelings. The other factors that come into play are casteism or racism. The play might have ruffles some feathers but the movie may have access to more.
Says Soorya Krishnamoorthy, whose play Melvilasam was staged over 400 times and who wrote the script of the movie also, “Madhav has doen a wonderful job. I had set three conditions while giving him permission to film it. One, that there be no female characters brought in, that the camera stay put in the court room and no flashbacks. This could be the first real time Malayalam movie, where conversation happens in the real order. In all my plays, there is a character called Ammu who represents pain.” Here too, Ammu is the child, played naturally by Gouthami.
Casting took some time, says the director, and the pains taken shows. “I did not want to cast predictable actors.” Suresh Gopi, Parthiban, Thalaivasal Vijay, Ashokan, Krishnakumar, Nizhalkal Ravi, and others, in uniform throughout, play their part to the hilt, even the smaller characters, though there is little action.
Good acting
The actors are given an opportunity and time to emote and they have all risen to the occasion. In the movie without songs, background music plays a pivotal role. Samson Kottoor can be credited with doing a wonderful job in that department. He plays the violin and the piano and has done music for a couple of serials and recently, a song in ‘Traffic' which is not in the movie. That flashbacks can come in sounds too is shown well by Madhav. The effect of silence that Samson employs and non-intrusive background jells with the situation and theme. Teamed with Harikumar's DTS mixing, the sound effects stand out.
Produced by Mohammed Salim and M. Rajendran, the movie had a false start when it was released some time ago, but it is ready for re-release next month. Many years ago, ‘Shankarabharanam' was whisked off theatres after two days but it came back to bask in success running for 200 days and more. More recently, Vikram's ‘Sethu' had the same ill luck and luck later, when it was released. The ‘Melvilasam' team is thus keeping its fingers crossed. Good cinema, if served right, will click, feels Madhav.
