Kerala varma Pazhasi Raja

Movie: Kerala varma Pazhasi Raja

Language: Malayalam

Theatre: Dhanya(TVM)

Genre: drama/war

After watching this movie, I was like WOW!.Pazhasi was such a movie where you sit in the cinemahall for atleast half of the credits thinking about how well the film has been executed and about each characters. Everything about it is as close to perfection which makes it simply one of the best history films of Indian cinema . Hats off to masters (Hariharan MT and Mammootty) for their hard work and determination.

Plot

The movie starts with narration about Pazhasi Raja (by Mohanlal) . The story was set in the 18^th century where the Britishers attacked Pazhasi’s kingdom who belonged to Royal family in Malabar area and was forced to move to forest regions in wayanad, where he coordinates his tribes to battle against the whites through guerilla warfare .In the first phase it was all about the character development which was brilliantly worked out by Hariharan,.In the second phase the story develops through the revolt against whites.

Performances

Coming to performances , mammootty gives an admirable portrayal of a legend, he lived the character with some mind blowing performance. His body language and grace makes us belive that this is Pazhassi and not Mammootty. The surprise element is the performance of Sharath Kumar, who gave a steller of performance which can be seen very rare from a Tamilian. This wont be a review if I omit Manoj K Jayan, after Ananthabadram, he again proved that he is a black pearl in Malayalam film industry.Padmapriya as Neeli stealed the show with her awesome flexibility in action sequences. I still doubt that our great actor jagadeesh has lost his timing and was at times disturbing .Others did their part well to make it a master piece.

Technical side

Hariharan and MT Vasudevan Nair again proved that this is not the game of youth, both were criticized much for taking the biggest movie ever in Malayalam film industry, but they handled it safely to give us a masterpiece. The dialogues will remain in our heart for a while. The lenses of Ramnaths camera pans the beautiful landscapes of wayanad,and some of the shots were breath taking. Special thanks to Ramnath for not showing gimmicks with camera as most of the new comers does. Coming to music department, though this is not a masterpiece from Ilayaraja but songs are hummable ,especially aadhiushas by Yesudas. But the Bgm was stunning, he recreated 18^th century through his magical touch. Editing by Sreekar Prasad was crap as some sequences lost its continuity.And last a salute to our Oscar winner Rasool pukkutty for teaming with a Malayalam project, which greatly lifted the movie.

So to sum up it’s a masterpiece by some brilliant direction, breathtaking shots and top notch performance . It has lot to offer in terms of its visual brilliance so run to the nearest cinema and enjoy this piece of art.

Verdict: **** and a thumbs up