With half the opposition back in the pavilion, Team India is closing in on a clean sweep of the series against the Lankans at the Chinnaswamy stadium. As expected, the first two days of the test match was sold out & I incidentally belonged to the crowd that had failed to get their hands on a ticket. Well that paved the path for checking out K M Kamal's "Pada" that had also released in the Garden City over the weekend. Ever since the trailer was social media, I have been eagerly looking forward to checking it out since the subject it handled & the execution of it along with an array of talented artists lined up gave ample proof that it was going to be a smacking one.
In 1996, four members of the 'Ayyankali Pada' decided to draw regional and national attention to the apathetic attitude of the state machinery to the cause of the tribal over the past few decades. Their plan was to keep the Palakkad Collector Dange (Arjun Radhakrishnan) as hostage in his official chamber & to continue the siege until the State Government withdrew the amendments made to the Kerala Scheduled Tribes Act 1975. The movie is about how these four men went about their plan, how the bureaucrats and the police force handled the crisis and the consequences that the Pada and the people who empathised with them had to face at the end of it.
About a decade back, Kamal made his foray into direction with "ID" which had premiered at the Busan International Film Festival. It was widely appreciated & hence the announcement of a project that dealt with a subject that shook Kerala politics at that point of time grabbed attention. The hardships of tribals have never ceased & even to this day, the topic that the movie talks about is relevant. Kamal does not try to take any cinematic liberties & keeps it as organic as possible which is exactly the reason why we are engaged in it until the very end despite knowing the climax. Without investing too much time into each individual character's backstory, he still manages to give the audience a fair idea about each member of the pada. If at all a drawback has to be said, then it is in the inclusion of way too artists but nothing much significant to do such as Shine Tom, Sudheer Karamana etc.
Kudos to Kamal also for his spot on choice of artists as each one of them be it Vinayakan, Chackochan, Joju George & Dileesh Pothan have done utmost justice to their roles. Keeping up with these fine artists is no mean task & Arjun Radhakarishnan has done just that with a credible performance (he was good in "Jhund" as well, the review of which I intend to post). In addition to that, Prakash Raj, Indrans, Vettukili Prakash etc have all been impressive. On the technical side, Vishnu Vijay's BGM was in sync with the mood while Sameer Thahir's visuals as always was fantastic.
Verdict: Undoubtedly one of the finest movies that have come out in recent times. In short, a must watch!!!
Rating: 4/5
Regards...Ben
Wow.. 4/5
ReplyDeleteSeems very good movie👍