Kaliyachan

It is not that indigestible off beat movie where a typical commercial movie audience would struggle to find out what is happening on screen. Kaliyachan, directed by Farook Abdul Rahiman depicts the life of poet P Kunhiraman Nair. Soaked in drama in almost every frame, the movie is a passable slice of biography that has discrete positives in both technical and performing sides.

Kunhiraman is the focus of the story. The aimless strange young man grabs the attention of a Kathakali Guru. Asan finds his talent in Kathakali and trains him to be the best of that time. The basic conflict of the film is the ego of Kunhiraman that causes issues in the relationship of the student and teacher. How it affects him is what gets narrated in the less than two hour long film.

As I mentioned, the drama is there in every frame. Very rarely you get to see characters speak in a natural tone. And some performers struggling to handle that drama also cause some disturbance in the narration. The storyline is somewhat predictable and it is the performance of Manoj K Jayan that helps the movie in those critical phases.

Director Farook doesn’t try to complicate the narration with the sort of clichés we see in offbeat films. The film succeeds in conveying the plot to every viewer. The screenplay is a bit sluggish in emphasizing on the main conflict and also on the struggle. It doesn’t showcase anything beyond the regret of the hero in its totality. The music and background score from Bijibal was really good. M J Radhakrishnan captures the mudras and the retro days beautifully. Art section was also good.

On screen Manoj K Jayan delivers a commendable performance as Kunhiraman. Emotionally the character has multiple shades and he transforms gracefully. Kalamandalam Sivan Namboodiri was finding it slightly difficult in front of the camera. Leading ladies Tirtha and Vaigha are just okay in their respective roles. Babu Namboothiri, Manikandan Pattambi and Manju Pillai were good in their characters.

To sum it up, Kaliyachan on the whole isn’t that appealing as it deals with a conflict with which we are quite familiar. The aspects like cinematography, music and the acting of Manoj K Jayan gives the movie certain respectability.