Swapaanam

The rhythm of life, even for a master drummer, can be disrupted as well as harmonized by love, passion, jealousy, hate and spite. Unni, a masterful chenda (a drum) player, is drawn to dancer Nalini by an intense force that transcends their devotion to the arts. However, their passion cannot hold up against the tumults in Unni's life, all of which hasten a mental imbalance, rooted in Unni's childhood, to an inevitable dark end.

Jayaram Kidu!!!!

Some people should stick to watching meaningless 'masala' films..it would 'uplift them'.. It is strange that such a beautiful poignant film as Swapaanam has been rated as 'BAD"...strangely the reviewer found pretty much everyone horrible or intolerable, from Jayaram to Kadambari to Siddique, Sharath and Laxmi Gopalaswamy..in his opinion all were either OK, horrible or miscast! Must have watched the film with a lot of negative energy deep within indeed! Its a marvelous film with stupendous performances by all..,.Manoj Karoor's dialogues are the most beautiful romantic expressions...its sheer poetry...it lingers on..a really wonderful film...as another reviewer pointed out...'DRINK IT".. Reviewers who are unable to have the patience to watch Shaji Karun, Adoor Gopalakrishnan, Aravindan films should abstain from watching such great cinema.

Art conjugates with self torture to burn down in orgasmic bliss. Shaji's last two films were wonderful and impressed with their poetic prose, but Swapaanam is even better and is like music in its art. You don't stop to reason, you just drink it. Characters and visuals feel like notes that congeal to form the symphony. Abandon the shackles of cognition and protective instincts and float around in a hallucinatory neurosis. Self destroy. There is no greater bliss, for artist or man. Shaji is dealing in expanses directors are scared of visualizing.

Never seen a movie that is as close to music in its artistic perfection as this one.

Yet another gem from the master craftsman of Malayalam cinema. Having seen his two previous meticulously brilliant ventures "Vanaprastham and Kuttisrank" I was so confident in him and wanted to watch it right from the day it was announced one more reason was there for me to grab seat was nothing other than the art called "Chenda Melam" Being a big fan of that art(Be it Paandi, Panchari or Thayambaka) I wanted to catch the seat first day itself but could not fulfill that wish due to some personal problem. However got the chance today and must say it was an out of world experience for me.

As I said before, those who have watched his previous ventures would certainly have an idea about his style of making. "Unique and precise" that is what Shaji Sir is all about. If the commercial films have high pitched BGM's and noisy aspects to convey the story shaji sir always opted a benevolent way to express it. You got to give complete care to the each and every scenes else u'll fail to engross the soul of the movie and that curious case is again happened here. Seriously loved his style and apparently fell in love with the BGM and cinematography. brilliant to the core and it could give us a hysterical feeling. If you talk about another technical expertise I felt the editing could have done better. Length of the movie was really a concern for me. still the above said BGM n stimulating visuals dint allow me to go bored. All the "Chenda Melam" scenes captured brilliantly especially the climax one. Loved the songs especially "Maadhava Maasamo...". And movie gave me chance to watch how "Chanda" can sweetly collaborate with amour art "Mohiniyattam". That was one fresh scene indeed.

Coming to the cast. Must say it is the career best for Jayaram. His love and affection towards the art was evident in most of the scenes. He could give 100% of his abilities to make the "chenda melam"s more effectual. Never felt any artificiality and thats indeed one reason for me to like his acting. As a mohanlal Fan I felt it would have been awesome to see, Lalettan doing this role(Yeah u can take it as the selfishness of fan). But Jayaram did a fabulous job and indeed deserve many acknowledgments and hopefully he will attain all those in coming days. Many of the people in here were not so happy with the lead actress's performance but she was fine at least for me. Lookd pathetic in some scenes but definitely deserve an applause considering the experience she has. Another man to be quoted is none other than the ever stable "Siddique" man!! what an actor he is. For me he is the next generation Murali and now I have all reasons to concrete my thought. Simply stole the show as Narayanan Namoothiri aka vattu namboothiri. Support casts comprise of Vineeth, Indrans, Lakshmi Gopalaswamy, PD namboothiri did a fine job. Sharath looked atrocious with his moustache and looked younger to lakshmi gopala swamy and must a complete miscast. All other who have worked before and behind the camera did so well and gave us a staggering cine experience.

Before winding up the I request all those who yet to watch this magniloquent stuff please don't wait for the CD or DVD and try to watch it in theater itself to know the brilliance of Shaji Sir. Even though this can't be tagged as the best of Shaji sir but definitely an worth a watch in theater.

P.S : New generation Kids please stay away from the theater where it runs because later I don't want to hear that "Amal Neerad is a better Director than shaji n karun" kinda atrocious things from you.