Dance of Doom

There is one thing that accompanies the Kerala State Film Awards every time they are announced- you guessed it right, controversies! We have actors, technicians, critics and members of the general public shouting from roof tops about the lack of credibility of the jury members and the non- sensical selection of awardees! There are evidences galore for the biassed decisions of the jury- when "Piravi" lost out to "Ore Thooval Pakshikal" in the best film category (1988 if I am right) or when Padmapriya lost out to Oorvashi in the best actress category (2005). If you want any more evidence, please watch "Rathrimazha" which was adjudged the second best feature film by the State Award Jury for the year 2006!

There is no denying the fact that "Rathrimazha' starts out on an interesting note- that of a love affair that blossoms over the internet. The female protagonist (Meera Jasmine- repetitive and getting on one's nerves) puts up a matrimonial ad on a website and she gets a response from handsome young man. They chat, e mail and exchange their thoughts only to fall in love. When things are going really well, the heroine realizes that her lover is a handicap. He happened to be a successful contemporary dancer who was his teacher's (Chithra Iyer in a frightening cameo) most favorite student. The teacher's husband (Lalu Alex playing a similar role for the umpteenth time) does not take it very lightly and conspires against the dancer. The result is an accident on the rehearsal stage which leaves our hero on the wheel chair for the rest of his life.

The heroine, being the idealist she is, still goes ahead with the wedding and things start moving out of control when the hero starts thinking that his wife is not happy and satisifed with him. Thereafter they discuss many things, try to do nice things to each other (he asks her to continue working and she takes him to his old dance school) and sing a couple of songs (listless compositions by Ramesh Narayan) but by then you completely lose interest in their lives. The dancer wants to stage a ballet with the help of his old friends and starts getting involved in that. He behaves as if he is ignoring his wife but in the meantime wants his best friend (Manoj K Jayan playing the compulsive flirt) to sleep with her. She is confused just like the hapless audience and in the end of it all, they realize their follies and come together. Sigh!

If I start listing the drawbacks of "Rathrimazha", I can go on and on and on! Lenin Rajendran has no clue about what he is doing with his script and camera. His direction is totally wrong. One wonders whether this film was edited at all! Photography and Art Direction are pleasing to the eyes. Musical score is a disappointment and the much acclaimed "Bansuri shruti" song turns out to be below average. Thanks to weak characterization, none of the actors strike a chord. Chithra Iyer is loud, Meera Jasmine is irritating and Vineeth is uninspiring. Diya of "Kurumbu" fame dances well and plays the only character in the movie that one can relate to. Even the dance sequences are not well executed. It is another mystery that the choreographers won the National Award!

"Rathrimazha" is said to be an adaptation of Chandramathy's short story "Website". Chandramathy, an unconventional writer, has always been acclaimed for the simplicity and lucidity of her essays and short stories. It is unfortunate that a director like Lenin Rajendran decided to mess up with a literary work of hers! "Rathrimazha" will definitely not be remembered by the audience- I dont know about Chandramathy and Lenin though!