Ozhimuri

While the need of the hour is widely promoted as urgent law reconstruction favouring women freedom in light of the delhi rapes, some might find it strange to believe that our country was once a place which gave the highest regard of its kind to the womenfolk and allowed them freedom in divorce and remarriage. The feudal kingdoms which are often touted for their totalitarian policies often took such liberal cultural stances which cared for freedom of the indvidual irrespective of their gender. The matrilinear system which used to prevail in kerala is a proper example of such a social setup. The advantage of the matrilineal system was that the property was enjoyed by successors of the women in the family. The women were educated and bold. They enjoyed freedom in all respects. The mother in the family was stronger than the father. But by the end of this system, in the 1940s, women lost all their powers and soon became 'slaves' in the hands of a feudal male-dominated society.Ozhimuri as a movie is an observation of the transition from this system to the current patrilinear system. The practices among nairs in southern travancore are shown in a very realistic manner , sometimes adding a bee wit of satire.Madhupal who has earlier proved his mettle with 'Thalappavu' impresses again, this time also touching on kerala history as he did in his earlier adaptation of emergency rajan case.

The primary factor of appeal in ozhimuri apart from its genuine thread would be the originality rendered in presenting the dialects and slangs of malayalam in southern travancore. The subtlelities in diction , some unique vocabularies and that unapprehendable mix with tamil has been so brilliantly reproduced , the obvious credit which should go to Jayamohan, the famous malayalam-tamil bilingual writer and critic. Jayamohan who is famous in the literary world for Vishnupuram, rubber etc has penned dialogues for tamil movies like naan kadavul, angadi theru and the yet to be released kadal. His foray into malayalam films could not be more perfect since it created a movie which finally showed some justice to the southern travancore malayalam, which was earlier reduced to a bafoonerish mockery by suraj venjarammodu and the mega start mammootty himself in Rajamanikyam ! Shot widely around Tiruvattar and other border areas of south kerala, the locales themselves are so orinally selected that they mingle seamlessly with the pplot and characters.

The screenplay basically evolves as insights into Thanupillai's (Lal) life and his character, through the recollections of his son sharath (Asif Ali) and his wife Meenakshi (Mallika). Asif Ali for once gives a mature performance which can help the viewer forget about his on-screen atrocitites earlier in asuravithu or ordinary. Lal gives an amazing performance in his father-son role, making him a sure prospective for some sort of recognition for his effort in this movie. These pieces of flashbacks are sewn together from Balamani's (Bhavana) perspective , who appears for Lal in the divorce case , or rather Ozhimuri case filed by his wife. Swetha Menon once again gets a negative role in the offering , but has little to do with it this time. The best thing about the plot is that it makes no effort to educate the viewers about any gender based assumptions or stances regarding a particular social practice. The viewer is rather left to ponder about the systems mentioned earlier and how it affected Thanupillai or Mallika as humans. The story which swings back and forth between Thanupillai and Sharath or Mallika ultimately ends in a sober note , not your typical happy ending as the latter part of the movie would tempt the viewer to believe in.

The non-appealability of ozhimuri to some masses or its rather dim box-office performace maybe attributed to the same cultural abberations between the north and southern parts of kerala. The local dialects and systems of southern travancore need not neccesarily be an item of fascination for people living in other parts of the state. While these are necessary evils or risks in adapting such a theme to screen, Ozhimuri is without doubt a decent watch to come out in a time when new-generation craps are ruling the industry.

Starting with A Salute to the Movie Maker Madhupal. I have seen the Movie "Thalappavu" in theaters back in 2008 and was really happy to see the birth of a brilliant Movie Maker. Had to wait for 4 years to see the glimpse of him again. Now he can be related with the best in the business today.

For Madhupal "Ozhimuri" was not just the Document of Separation but a Canvas to mention

* How love is voiced by the two gender/caste/culture * Relationship of Father/Mother/Child * How can a state boundary division effect a family/culture * Portraits the negative side when a single gender takes authority in a family/society * How important Power is to us, even if we don't express it.

One of the Best Movies Recently Malayalam Cinema witnessed. Never skip a chance to see it in Theatres.

Pros: Director, Script, Visuals(Camera), Background score, All the actors looked like they were built to do their roles. Worst Part : Promotion/Distribution of this movie was pathetic. Released in the worst theaters in all major centers.

‎"Ozhimuri" by Madhupal explores the complex issues revolving around a period when the matrilineal system had been the highlights of the day where Nair women owned properties and were the feared powerful matriarchs in the society. The transition soon occurred with the coming of new laws where the rights were equal for both genders.

Embroiled in the transition are three generations and how each struggles to maintain the power status quo and yet at the end of the day, no one is the winner or the loser...so complex is the human psyche and the innermost demons it has to fight against that it is hard to feel sympathy or anger for any party.

A powerful film all the way.

I have been watching quite a few malayalam movies recently. This is the one that has shaken me the most emotionally. The movie has great depth of character and has so many things to say. Everything feels in place in the movie and the movie exudes excellent integrity.

The movie captures the subdued emotional lives of people and how the subduedness can lead to deeply engrained misunderstandings. The complexities that these lead to can be quite unnerving. Human lives are unfortunately challenging in nature.

The commitment to the period and location of the movie has been impressive and complete. The detailing in the usage of dialects in travancore and the mix of tamil and malayalam is striking. The social fabric of the times has been presented.The atmosphere of the movie has been set very purposefully and with great attention to all the details and the story of the movie unfolds against this fabric.

The threads of various complex relationships gives the viewer a lot to learn/reflect on. I have felt that incorrect social norms can often lead to unnecessary complexities.The situations in the movie can also be perceived as the never-ending consequences of the disarray caused by skewness allowed by the social setup of the particular time. If the current social setup allows you a skewness that is unfair, you will be better off not allowing yourself the unfair advantage. Here , we have a time when the wife is allowed to throw out the husband whim-based. Wife throws the husband out. The son is vehement at his mother. The son tries to rule his wife , fearful of her having seen the plight his father faced. This further leads to the distraught in the son's family life. Angsts of various characters presented so very well that it should be tough to go through the movie untouched.

All the actors have done great work. Mallika as the wife/mother has done excellent natural acting. Asif has fit well into the movie as the son. Bhavana has been great as the chirpy current generation girl. Romance between Bhavana and Asif has been convincingly presented. Makeup work for Swetha Menon and Lal has been good as have been their renditions.

Movie presents some incisive insights that flashes in beams of understanding. This is a textbook with lot of room for introspection and reflection.The movie is so completely honest and sincere.Hope for a time when such movies can run well in theatres.