Thazhvaram

This is one among best movie ever made in malayalam. No words.. Must watch..

Today, watched the 90's classic malayalam movie "Thazhavaram-The valley" once again, in a TV channel,after a long period. But this time ,thought of writing something here about the movie . This movie, I would say, one of the best movie by Bharathan,. I know that there is no point in describing the story of the movie and tell you repeatedly that the movie is excellent ,because its already known to all . So I will point out some of the good features of the movie which I was attracted to ."Thazhavaram" is a masterpiece in all aspects. A well crafted movie, which makes us remember some Hollywood classic thrillers. It can not be considered fully as a dramatic movie . By genre, it's a thriller , in my opinion.Bhartahan was keen to make this movie, grammatically perfect as well as thematically strong. The theme of the movie is not so unusual, ...a man who reaches an isolated valley in search of his old pal, the murderer of his wife , so as to have his vengeance. What makes it different is the treatment .

Technical ##########

First thing that can be noticed is the technical quality of the movie. First of all Venu has done an excellent cinematographic work. Next one is, director, Bharathan, has composed each frames very carefully. I haven't watched much more movies, in which a director keeps the grammatical aspects of movie-making so brilliantly. The film consists of so many beautiful wide-shots, which nowadays can never be seen in any reginal movies, but is an essential part of a visually stunning movie. Another brilliant composition ,in which director used "Golden Mean" which is a dynamic balancing technique , usually got to see in western movies..(the scene in which the character "Balan" played by Mohan lal walks through the valley ,just after passing a hanging brdge,and some cattles crosses him. ;two by third of the frame occupied by the sky and rest by the surface,and the character moving from left towards right of the frame...) This technique is very rarely used in our films. Almost all of the frames are geometrically perfect. Visual elments are well composed in the frames to achieve good depth to the scenes which makes them visually brilliant. Sound recording was also remarkable. One of the best feature of the movie is that the background music coming only in required situations. (Remember ,in Hariharan's classic movie "Oru Vadakkan Veeragadha" , a major drawback we can point out is the mishandled background score.)

Performance #############

There are not much protagonists coming to main plot, the main characters are played by, Mohan lal, Sumalatha,Sankaradi and Salim Gouse, all of them has done their job well...The performance of Saleem Gouse is especially remarkable. And of course, Mohan lal is brilliant in his lead role.(A scene in which he is listening to Sankaradi explaining the fake story told by the anti-hero ,he is responding to the narration of Sankaradi and at the same time he is shocked hearing the story.His expression at that moment is simply amazing)

Screenplay ###########

Script by M.T Vasudevan Nair is outstanding . There are no signs of any particular time period in the script.That makes the movie a unique one ,.No matter after how many years since it's release ,you are watching this movie, you will feel the same freshness. But credit goes to the director who was able to screen a beautiful script without losing its soul, in a well disciplined manner, avoiding disturbing action scenes and gimmicks which could have been added easily in this kind of themes. Usually flashbacks in a movie would become little bit irritating and may affect the flow of the central theme.But in this movie, Bhartahan shows flashbacks in certain intervals and complete it at a point and move forward with the current theme from that point , which is a classic style of storytelling, so that the audience will be immersed in the central theme, without breaking the flow, cinematically speaking,creates a suspension of disbelief.

Definitely,Thazhavaram is a movie which deserves a place in your personal movie collections.

Overall I'd give 9/10 for the movie.

Awesome film.. direction, story, actors... and what else everything is at its peak.

This film is extremely simple. 2 men who have a rivalry are forced to stay at a house along with 2 people that have no idea about this rivalry. At the end one of the men is killed and the other walks off into the distance. There only like a few characters in the movie: balan played by Mohanlal, raju played by salim ghose, kochooti played by sumalatha, and nanu played by sankaradi. I watched this film months ago so I am astounded by me remembering them. And that wouldn't have happened if all the main performances werent perfect. The script by mt vasudevan nair is amazing, except for one sentence that completely ruins the immersion. The film also doesnt tell us a lot of the world outside of the thazhvaram, or the valley where the main characters live, making this film timeless and applicable anywhere. There is also another flaw that mohanlal's fiancee looks like a teenager which also doesnt make much sense. Overall a great and simple film that is one of the classics for its near perfection.

Thazhvaram (1990) Brief Review -

A simple revenge drama in 90s couldn't have got better execution and performances than this. True Red Vibes of Old Hollywood's Westerns. Thazhvaram has a very simple story but the execution it follows on screen is more than its on-paper potential. It happens sometimes that a good story gets spoiled by dull storytelling and sometimes it's other way around. A simple story gets better presentation than what it deserves and that's what has happened with Thazhvaram in my opinion. Balan and Raju's friendly relationship turns into rivalry when Raju murders his wife and robs his hard-earned money. Balan decides to take revenge on Raju. It reminded me of some Western flicks from old Hollywood (before 60s) which had the similar plot and yet those films came out much better with the help of skillful vision. Maybe, Thazhvaram could have been improvised on paper with better screenplay. It starts off on a faltered note. That scene in first 15 minutes when Balan confrons Raju to seek revenge but wastes the opportunity. That wasn't sensible to me but if it hadn't been like that then what follows next couldn't have been possible. Intense acts by Mohanlal and Salim Ghouse have made this film more watchable, rather i would say almost a must see material. Sumlatha and Anju both look very beautiful and both of them plays their parts very fine along with Sankardi. Thazhvaram is more of a director's and actors' film than the writer. One can easily predict what's gonna happen next hence the thrill is missing but you can't just guess how the director is gonna showcase that scene on screen and how beautifully actors take it one step higher. Bharathan has left Thazhvaram with Zero boring moments. The film keeps you engaged despite its predictability and that's the best thing about it. Overall, a Fantastic Gripping Revenge Tale.

RATING - 7/10*

By - #samthebestest.