A few days back, I'd written about the refreshing turn of genre discernible among the current crop of Malayalam movies and it's my sincere hope that it's not a flash in the pan but an ongoing trend!
This evening, Lekha and me had the privilege of viewing this nicely made movie. The story hinges on the sex escapades of a divorcee against the backdrop of a conservative Kerala society. The protagonist portrayed by Honey Rose is brilliant and has a refreshing candour. Though the film is replete with sexual overtones throughout and the dialogues are peppered with frequently used colloquial sexual innuendos, it's far from being vulgar and the kudos must go to the director, VK Prakash.
Trivandrum Lodge is a dilapidated, seedy looking hotel in the Willingdon Island of Kochi and has the modern Vallarpadam Container Transshipment Terminal, in front of it across the backwaters, as a contrast! Its inmates consist the majority of the characters of the movie - from wannabe film stars, an elderly piano teacher and his pushy, matronly wife who tends the kitchen that caters for the gastronomical requirements of everyone, the simpleton who came in as a worker in the nearby massage parlour craving for his first sexual experience and the elderly guy claiming to await his thousandth experience with a police woman egging him on....they make a cute bunch! The janitor and the primary school going son of the owner who make a visit to the lodge every month to collect the rent, the wealthy owner who lives in the memory of his late wife and his father, who stays separately, tending a modest tea shop, are the other characters that lend credence to a plausible story.
The tender relationship between the school children, Arjun and Amala, have been aesthetically shot (It reminded me of the possessiveness that I'd shown for my classmate, Girija Thampi in the third standard of the Holy Angels' Convent, years back). And the following visuals continue to linger long after one comes out of the cinema:-
(a) The anxiety writ large on everyone's face when the simpleton is giving a massage to the young lady
behind closed doors.
(b) The call girl's casual reference to her paralysed husband behind the curtain, used as a partition in the
room and the consequent dampening of the simpleton's sexual urge.
(c) The simpleton's browsing of cheap pornographic books in preparation for his maiden sexual
experience.
(d) The nuances of the grandfather-father-son relationship.
(e) The husband's look of being cuckolded when he sees another guy in his divorced wife's hotel room.
(f) The elderly man's exaggerated narration of his 999 sexual escapades and the longing for the landmark
experience, with a rider.
Well, another watchable movie and I congratulate its makers for their efforts!
Tailpiece.
The show was almost house full. However, the female audience including Lekha, was just a handful. The majority consisted of young gentlemen in their teens or out of it, working in IT firms predominantly(the guys who sat next to us were all from the nearby Infopark).
Was it just an aberration for this particular show or does it reflect the famous 'malayalee prudishness'? I sincerely hope that it's the former!
This evening, Lekha and me had the privilege of viewing this nicely made movie. The story hinges on the sex escapades of a divorcee against the backdrop of a conservative Kerala society. The protagonist portrayed by Honey Rose is brilliant and has a refreshing candour. Though the film is replete with sexual overtones throughout and the dialogues are peppered with frequently used colloquial sexual innuendos, it's far from being vulgar and the kudos must go to the director, VK Prakash.
Trivandrum Lodge is a dilapidated, seedy looking hotel in the Willingdon Island of Kochi and has the modern Vallarpadam Container Transshipment Terminal, in front of it across the backwaters, as a contrast! Its inmates consist the majority of the characters of the movie - from wannabe film stars, an elderly piano teacher and his pushy, matronly wife who tends the kitchen that caters for the gastronomical requirements of everyone, the simpleton who came in as a worker in the nearby massage parlour craving for his first sexual experience and the elderly guy claiming to await his thousandth experience with a police woman egging him on....they make a cute bunch! The janitor and the primary school going son of the owner who make a visit to the lodge every month to collect the rent, the wealthy owner who lives in the memory of his late wife and his father, who stays separately, tending a modest tea shop, are the other characters that lend credence to a plausible story.
The tender relationship between the school children, Arjun and Amala, have been aesthetically shot (It reminded me of the possessiveness that I'd shown for my classmate, Girija Thampi in the third standard of the Holy Angels' Convent, years back). And the following visuals continue to linger long after one comes out of the cinema:-
(a) The anxiety writ large on everyone's face when the simpleton is giving a massage to the young lady
behind closed doors.
(b) The call girl's casual reference to her paralysed husband behind the curtain, used as a partition in the
room and the consequent dampening of the simpleton's sexual urge.
(c) The simpleton's browsing of cheap pornographic books in preparation for his maiden sexual
experience.
(d) The nuances of the grandfather-father-son relationship.
(e) The husband's look of being cuckolded when he sees another guy in his divorced wife's hotel room.
(f) The elderly man's exaggerated narration of his 999 sexual escapades and the longing for the landmark
experience, with a rider.
Well, another watchable movie and I congratulate its makers for their efforts!
Tailpiece.
The show was almost house full. However, the female audience including Lekha, was just a handful. The majority consisted of young gentlemen in their teens or out of it, working in IT firms predominantly(the guys who sat next to us were all from the nearby Infopark).
Was it just an aberration for this particular show or does it reflect the famous 'malayalee prudishness'? I sincerely hope that it's the former!
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