The challenge in bringing out a movie like this in malayalam is that it is a small industry with respect to audience strength and finance. This where Gokulam Gopalan the producer needs a real pat on the back. He has invested on a great subject and invested it with a veteran director and one of the greatest writers who knows exactly how to bring out a period movie. Another huge challenge which would have been posed to the movie the research work needed in finding out the story backgrounds and other aspects regarding Pazhassi Kerala Varma and his lineage. For once this has been done barring any controversies as such movies have always had to content with like in Mangal Pandey. The third and most challenging factor is to evoke patriotism in the viewer's mind, without which it would be a total flop. Being set in the early 19th century when we were never called "India" and instead were split into infinitesimal provinces, to bring out the patriotic aspect would be difficult. There can't be "Vande Matarams" , "BharatMaata ki Jai" etc: to project the love for the nation. This is were MT comes out trumps with a solid script maintaining and projecting all along the taxation of the East India Company and lack of freedom within the provinces that common man faces as the main issues which prompts Kerala Varma of Pazhassi Kovilakam to urge his men to fight for their rights.
On seeing the movie it is very clear that each frame has been well thought out in the director's mind and Hariharan was able to get all his characters to play it to perfection as it was etched in his mind. The technical aspects (barring the wire work for the action sequences) are the best that one would see in Indian films for a long time to come, for sure this would be the benchmark for others to be measured against. This is not just a malayalam movie, its an Indian movie. Color correction , background music and Sound mixing are just too good. Resul Pookutty has demonstrated what truly his caliber is in this movie. Whole period of rain is a real delight for one's ears and truly is a spine chilling experience.
Mammootty has put in a sublime performance and please do not go by the number of email forwards going around about him being overshadowed by Sarath Kumar, not one bit in my view. Kerala Varma of Pazhassi as per history is suppose to be slightly short and really slim which Mammooty isn't but there is no one on earth who can look so regal as a keralite prince like Mammookka. And the performance that he puts in befits the Lion of Kerala - Pazhassi Raja. Sarath Kumar has drawn rave reviews and deservedly so for the performance he has put in. Surely this must have been a different experience for him considering the masala illogical movies that he has till date done in Tamil. This role has provided him with an opportunity to express himself as an actor completely in a single movie. Manoj K Jayan never really disappoints in any movie of his and the same is the case here. As Thalakkal Chandu he simply has put in a stellar performance and Suresh Krishna is improving day by day and as Kaitheri Ambu he plays his part.
As for the female counterparts , Kanika once again put in a mature and good performance after bhagyadevatha. She never really looked out of place and played the role of a dedicated wife of 18th century to perfection and she looked every bit so. But the really show stopper has been PadmaPriya. She has performed action scenes with aplomb and elan. It was really refreshing to see her performance. Its very rare for an actress to get such s chance. With this role she has fulfilled her dream to dub for herself. My respect for her is growing everyday and her professionalism is commendable. As Neeli, the tribal girl she has put up a performance up there with the male counterparts in the story.
Some of the disappointments were -
1. The poor wire/rope work for action sequences: It was not really needed in certain places and it was clear to the audience rope was being used (unlike in Puthiya Mugham where it was executed brilliantly).
2. MT made a glaring mistake by mentioning "Thiruvananthapuram" instead of "Tiruvitamkoor" like how it was called in those days. Just cannot imagine how such a big mistake happened to MT.
3. What happens to Neeli is not being shown which i feel is a huge miss. I m not sure whether this portion was cut out during the show which i watched because i haven't heard this comment from anyone till now.
But these disappointments don't take much away from the movie and its definitely a must see. An epic on celluloid doesn't come along often and credit to Gokulam Gopalan for marketing it well too. The ads promotions and stuff in the channels (ACV Medley and Jukebox having Pazhassi Raja Background, Indiavison with Pazhassi pop ups) were really unique and first of its kind in Malayalam Industry. The concept to dub the movie in multiple languages and release them was also a good idea as to extract profit this would be necessary as the viewership of the malayalam movies is limited and an investment of 30 crore might fail to earn profit if its target audience is Malayalam alone. Sarath Kumar being involved in the movie with a full length role would do no harm for its popularity among Tamil viewers. Kamalhassan and SRK doing the intro narrations in Tamil and Hindi respectively was another clever tactic.
To round off, congrats to the whole crew for bringing out such a marvelous creation. Hariharan should be appreciated for giving equal importance for all the characters and that is were the movie succeeds big time. Its not just a super star or Mamootty show. Its a real team effort on and behind the screen. The instances were the British gets beaten by Pazhassi's forces , make us sit up and take notice not just for how it has been picturized , but for the sheer admiration of the genius of Kerala Varma Pazhassi. It is a great moment for every malayalee to show to the rest of India and the world that we too had a master war strategist and tactician who fought and inspired thousands of others to fight modern techniques and equipments with intelligence, will powers and truckloads of courage.
The only real story that exists in Indian history that can be compared to Pazhassi's story is that of Mangal Pandey where it was still provinces and an India never existed before Mangal Pandey's hanging. If we put both of them on a one on battle, Pazhassi Raja succeeds as a movie in comparison to Mangal Pandey purely because of the technical aspects and most importantly in evoking national pride and patriotism. I have to admit that Mangal Pandey failed terribly in this regard(I ma huge Amir Khan fan still got to admit).I'm not dwelling into details of various shots and scenes as no words are enough for the beauty of the location and perfection of the shots and mainly because i don't want to spoil anyone's thrill when watching the movie. Creators of movies like Blue should watch this and learn how not to waste big money. If that kind of money was available to Hariharan I don't know how good Pazhassi would have been :) ... Heard melodies are sweet, those unheard are sweeter i guess.
Thanks a ton Hariharan , MT & Crew for making us proud ...
