Just like tasting different cuisines is a hobby of mine , i am passionately interested in movies . But only one condition just like i will eat any food provided it is tasty , the movie should have a plot (not the regular girl meets boy ) . Here Malayalam movies especially of the 1980-90 period called the "golden age " of malayalam cinema never fails to satisfy me . It was with a little doubt however that i saw a film today called " Thaalam thettiya thaarattu " meaning the song which lost its rhythm ... The film didnt have a great director or a great cast ...no mammootty no mohanlal ... and the beginning half an hour was the typical yes the typical mallu boy meeting chasing and falling in love with mallu girl story . I sent the film critic in me to sleep and just watched the film however ...
After half an hour the film changed .....dramatically .....veteran actors like Lakshmi and Balan K Nair appeared and the tempo changed and there is an interesting court drama in which the heroine drags our hero into the court for making her pregnant on the pretext of promising her marriage .... Long used to the films(there were so many in the 1970s films ) where the heroine commits suicide when such things happen this film was a different approach to this issue ...
As a firm believer that movies though fiction gives an idea about the social trends this film is indeed a representative of that period . In that period the emancipation of women started and by looking into the films before and after you will see the difference . In the 70s .... if a woman got pregnant without marriage the society ostracized her and in the films this was shown to great effect in the countless heroines adopting varying methods of suicide . in the 2000s , it is no longer a topic for the films because it is not an issue anymore with concepts like living together ...We even had a movie called living together a few years back . But 1980s were a time of transition and this film is an example of that movement . For my non malayali friends if you are interested in serious cinema please get some of malayalam movies with english or hindi subtitles and stick to films in the 1980s--1990s period . And i assure you there will be yet another taste of gods own country with its passionate themes , and realistic plots .....and of course Mammootty and Mohanlal
well written. though i am a kannadiga,i have watched many Mal movies and liked them coz they r realistic and so strongly scripted
ReplyDeleteyes malayalam movies (not all) are like iranian and french movies ... my aim is to see as much and post review on the good ones . Btw do u get them with subtitles in ur place ?
ReplyDeletei used to watch with a malayali friend of mine who explained me the dialogues.
ReplyDeletei will never forget the movie Kireetam of mohanlal. i think i cried seeing it
now i dont watch :( because that friend is in another country :(
@sujatha kireetam is classic -- mohanlal and thilakan (his father in the movie ) great acting and the screenplay is great ...
ReplyDeletehi, just read your blog. i've seen " Thaalam thettiya thaarattu " and i think it was a hit at that time,though there were no super stars as you said.It had a twist but,with all elements of a movie which were common ingredients of popular movies. In my concept The woman movie which was made in Malayalam is "Aadaminte variyell" by K.G.George.
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