Crying Foul while Playing the Fool...

I am still wondering how T V Chandran had the gumption to claim that the Kerala State Film Award Jury was afraid of Adoor Gopalakrishnan. They should ideally be afraid of Chandran himself and the kind of movies he is churning out (2 movies of T V Chandran were in the race for the awards this year!). The only reason I thought of catching "Vilaapangalkkappuram" in a theatre was because I did not have anything else in particular to do and while sitting through this movie (which felt painfully long even at 100 odd minutes), I thought I could have spent the time on sleep rather than this moronic work of art! The communal and political exploitation of a rape victim has been the favorite theme for Indian filmmakers ever since the parallel cinema movement started in India (20 years before yours faithfully was born!) and it is high time our filmmakers moved over the Godhra riots of 2002 (I am not commenting on the social responsibilities of a film maker and all that crap. To me, cinema is either good or bad and in this case, it is unpardonably bad!) The problem with Vilaapangalkkappuram is its incohesive script and characters that lack a rooting or a graph. What was the point in bringing in Biju Menon- how does he contribute to the larger picture? And what is a talented actor like Suhasini Manirathnam doing- mouthing the same dialogues and wearing the same expression over and over again? My heart went out to Thilakan who puts in the worst performance of his career. As for others- Rosilin, M R Gopakumar, Nandu, Sudheesh, V K Sreeraman, Zeenath, Praveena- well they all come and go! I did not particularly like Priyanka Nair's performance either- she was behaving like a psychopath in the climax and I dont understand how that character could muster enough courage to leave the hospital and have faith in the character played by Tilakan especially after the trauma that she has gone through... Chandran has always been a strong feminist and has made much better films in the past- Mangamma, Alicinte Anveshanam, Susanna, Paadam Onnu Oru Vilaapam- where his ladies played strong, deep rooted characters. In comparison, Vilaapangalkkappuram is nothing but a few shots stitched together in the name of cinema that causes embarrassment to everyone associated with it including the hapless viewer who thinks about giving it a try!