Film:Saigal Paadukayaanu
Direction: Sibi Malayil
Starring: Shine Tom Chacko, Remya Nambeesan, Hareesh Perady
Sibi Malayil has in the past given us some of the best musicals that this industry has managed to produce. Bharatham, His Highness Abdullah and Kamaladalam are still the gold standard for the genre against which any such new release is compared. It’s but natural that his latest film Saigal Paadukayaanu will also be held to the same standards, a test from which it does not come out shining.
Set in the mehfil milieu of Kozhikode, the film focuses on the life of Chandrababu (Shine Tom Chacko), a gifted singer who is forced to become an autorickshaw driver to make ends meet.
It seems to have been inspired from the lives of those talented musicians who surrendered themselves to the bottle.
The film is structured as recollections of those close to him, while he is on a hospital bed, battling for his life.
The intentions of it being a ‘musical’ are clear in the earlier sequences of his father’s (Madhupal) musical performances and his own talent being discovered by his father’s peers during his younger days.
Some pleasing melodies enliven these parts.
But, soon after, the movie veers towards another zone, with the writer seeming to have forgotten what he set out to do.
The template of the unbelievably evil and greedy brother-in-law and suffering sister are played out as music takes a backseat. In fact, after those sequences of the young Chandrababu’s singing, we jump directly to his becoming an auto driver, without touching on his musician aspect.
That aspect comes as an afterthought, especially in the second half, when we see him sloshed and singing at public functions.
The only other time it reminds of its ‘musical’ tag is when he sings staple lines of Baburaj, Saigal and Rafi. Much of the script focuses on his drunkenness and his consequent self-destruction, so much so that it almost becomes a sermon against drinking towards the end.
Shine’s character here is similar to that of Nedumudi Venu’s in Bharatham and that comparison perhaps tells us the promise that it held, but which was not sadly tapped.
It instead becomes an average drunkard story with some background music.
The title of the film should have been ‘Saigal kudikkukayaanu’ (Saigal is drinking).
S.R. Praveen
