Great movies can be disturbing or even unpleasant to watch because the best directors will not hesitate to strip away the genteel facade of social restraint to show Life in its raw and essential state. This 1988 Malayalam language movie by the great writer-director Padmarajan is an unflinching meditation on love and death.
I am a native and resident of Kerala State, India, the home of this movie, and I was just 9 years old when it was released; I saw parts of it on TV as a youngster and vaguely knew it was about one central character's accidental death and the other central character's drastic reaction to this shattering event, but I had subconsciously avoided watching it properly till today, undeniably because of the grim and (for me) anxiety-inducing topic.
One might call it the Old Man and the Sea of Malayalam cinema. The finish leaves the viewer crushed with a profound sense of the futility of human emotions in the face of death inexorable, which the grandly ominous yet supremely indifferent sea represents. Since this movie is a tragedy, its implicit message might be read that Death defeats Love. Death takes centre stage here, but it is also about how an all-encompassing love can fail to survive its passing -- the narrow focus of modern love upon a very few number of closest family members is shown here to create that void, leaving a person without a sense of purpose, should the loved one perish.
I can give the full 10 full points for the sensitive, relatively subdued and brilliantly realistic portrayal of the protagonists' response to a dear one's shocking demise, without the crudely histrionic melodrama or exquisitely irritating sentimentality common to many Indian movies. All time great Malayalam actor Thilakan (whom I was privileged to meet in person when he was waiting for a flight in 2007) carries the film with a tremendously real, yet restrained, powerhouse performance as the bereaved protagonist.
Ultimately the movie's great strength lies in its choice and powerful treatment of death, a universal theme with resonance for every human being -- this could happen to you and yours, says the director, and thus harnesses our primal emotional responses to death and bereavement -- thus the cultural setting is rendered irrelevant and "Moonnaam Pakkam", which I hope someone could release with at least English subtitles, remains a great philosophical film that will stand with the best in world cinema forever.
