Chanthupottu (2005) : A Controversy

                            Chanthupottu is a Malayalam movie directed by Lal Jose and released in 2005 . It tells the story of Radhakrishn...

Sep 28, 2016

Oru Muthassi Gadha - REVIEW

The group of grandfathers and grandmothers are getting vanished from the scene of late. I am taking about cinema where it is very rare these days to find a grand father or a grandmother as the storyline now do not have any space for them. Jude Anthony Joseph who had previously directed Om Shanti Oshana comes up with his second film titled Oru Muthassi Gadha. The presence of Muthassi is not just limited to the title alone as OMG has the lively presence of Leelaamma, a grandmother and infact she is the backbone of this movie.

About the film, its a simple film with a wafer thin storyline that spread lot of goodness, makes you sad and at the same it has lot of fun and sentiments involved. The trailer of the movie was conveying the vanishing of the older generation from the movie scene in terms of characters and in OMG, there are not many of them justifying the trailer but Leelaamma is enough to fill the void of so many as her acts and screen presence compensate for the absence of a few more of them.

We have a family of Shiby and Jeen along with their elder daughter and son but in the family, its Sibychan's mother Leelaamma who is ruling the roost. She has anger at the tip of her nose and makes the life of others in the family a miserable one due to her strictness and involvement in each and everything that comes up before this family. Unexpected arrival of Jeen's mother create a different atmosphere at home and uncover another face of the old woman which is narrated quite well by Jude in his second film.

We find the helplessness of Sibychan many times and the screenplay conveys them in a funny way. The sentimental presence along with humour also helped the movie to sustain its life for the entire running time of one hundred and forty four minutes. The problems especially the isolation that the older generation gets is treated in a lighter way here with humour and fun. That helped in enjoying the film to a great extent as the film takes a serious tone in only limited scenes that too as per the demands of the situation.

Jude has left some messages and also some thoughts for the present generation. Older people enjoying the company of people of similar pages, a thought endorsed by one of the characters in the film was a nice thought but for that pushing the old people to old age homes for that is something that cannot be sided with. The movie wants to convey something good which we will realise in the second half through very lighter and emotional moments. The storyline as such is quite simple and at the same time a threadbare one but ultimately what matters is the presentation and in my opinion, the director has succeeded in conveying what he wanted through his movie.

Suraj Venjaramudu and Lena plays husband and wife and they were apt in their respective roles. Suraj these days is trying roles that has something in it to perform instead of going for the length and number of scenes involved. The selection of the character of Sibychan is yet another example of this. Though he is the hero of the film, the character vanishes after halfway mark and doesn't have a major role to play thereafter but nevertheless what he performed in the first one hour was enough to make his presence felt. Lena also played her part quite well.

Aparna Balamurali had dual roles to play and she was convincing as Leela as well as Alice. Dubbing artist Baagyalakshmi appear as Susamma towards the latter stages in an important role and makes it perfect. Pisharody and Vijayaraghavan were also fine along with that Bengali character whose name I am not aware of. Vineeth Sreenivasan makes a cameo appearance which is limited to a song and a few scenes. Jude himself appear in a humourous role towards the latter stages.

The star of the show is definitely the sixty five year old Rajani Chandy. She was a perfect choice for Leelaamma. Her mannerisms, dialogue delivery and acting gave full life to Leelaamma and once we finish watching the film, we realise that she has perfectly fitted into the shoe of Leelaamma as per how Jude has visualised that role.

Cinematography is neatly handled by Vinod Illampally. Shaan Rahman is the music director. Though none of the songs stays in our mind, the one pictured on Vineeth and Aparna was good to watch as the visuals added extra colour to the song. Background score was synching well in creating the right mood for each and scene.

The story inspired from what actor Nivin Pauly told in a discussion with the director though a very light one gets a good treatment by Jude who have added the right ingredients required for the plot to make it watchable. Though the older generation is getting very little presence in today's movies, just like how they are sidelined by today's youth, these types of subjects depicting the dream and wishes of our grandfathers and grandmothers can atleast open up our eyes for the good.

Rating - 3 / 5

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