Vanaprastham

By A Prasad

Director: Shaji N Karun
Cinematographer: Santosh Sivan
Banner: Pranavam intl

If you are looking for Mohan Lal the superstar in this film, you will be disappointed because here, you will find Mohanlal in a new avatar - an actor who can give a very restrained performance. Shaji, whose first film Piravi won him the national award and an entry into the Cannes festival and later, Swaham, which too was invited for Cannes has for the third time struck gold with an entry to Cannes and has been selected to over 23 countries.

Mohanlal plays Kunhikuttan, the Kathakali exponent, whose portrayal of Arjuna in the Arjuna - Subhadra episode from Mahabharatha wins him accolades and the public throng to see him play Arjuna. Personally, he has a bad marriage and is tormented by the fact that his mother, a low-caste woman, refuses to tell who his father is and suspects that it could be the Namboothri. While performing at a rich man's ancestral house, he comes across Subhadra, the daughter of the rich man, who is married to a person from the high society. She spends her time reading and writing fiction and has stopped distinguishing between fiction and reality. She is swept off her feet by Kunikuttan's intense performance and thinks herself to be the Subhadra in the play. She falls in love with Arjuna and the relationship turns sexual.

Kunhikuttan is happy to be involved with someone who understands and loves his work, but this happiness is short-lived. Subhadra refuses to even show the son born out of this relationship and stays away from him as she was in love with Arjuna, the performer, and not Kunhikuttan of the real world. Now, Kunhikuttan is devastated because he is a father deprived of his son. He stages his final show, where he plays Arjuna with his daughter as Subhadra and his fiancée comes to see him. She cannot digest anyone else being Subhadra to Arjuna and takes Kunhikuttan's daughter into her fold as her own. Kunhikuttan walks off, leaving behind a letter asking Subhadra to tell her son who his father is and spare him the lifelong torment.

Suhasini plays Subhadra with great ease and conveys her feelings effectively without much words. Needless to say, it's a triumph for Mohan Lal as an actor and the credit goes to Shaji for creating a script that brings out the inner self of a performer. Santhosh has created the right kind of mood throughout.

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