Jalam

Well the intention of the movie Jalam may be very sincere, but to be honest this film from the team that created Kanal is pretty dull and can’t really establish any influence in the minds of the audience. It is conceived as an idea to use Cinema as a tool to create a social change in certain matters, but there isn’t any earnestness in the making.

The film depicts the struggle of a woman named Seetha. She got married to a man younger to her and soon after marriage she realized that the guy doesn’t have any land on his own and the couple decides to start the struggle for land. The legal and official tussle Seetha had to face to get the land from the government is what this less than two hour long movie narrating.

If you ask me whether the content of the movie is unreal? It would be difficult for me to say Yes. The content may be true, but the cinematic victory of any story is in its presentation. The predictability of the situations and the high on melodrama in every dialogue takes away that real feel of the backdrop. Even from the uneducated to the sophisticated, everyone is speaking the printed language and the methods of presenting certain scenes are also quite clichéd. Every character is blaming the system and a few of those statements kind of made an impact.

Priyanka has delivered a good performance as Seetha. The pain and the transformation to a bold mindset were portrayed nicely by her. Actress Sethulakshmi was good in that character in her typical slang and style. The guy who acted as Seetha’s husband was disappointing. Brief roles were there for Prakash Bare, Reshmi Boban and P Balachandran.

Making style of Padmakumar is still in that same zone of dramatization. You can’t see any directorial glory in the staging of events. The script isn’t really trying to give a depth to the topic. It is just touching the surface of the issue with a few dialogues preaching about the right for land to everyone. A powerful writing would have definitely made an impact at least in a documentary level. Cinematography and edits are just okay. Ouseppachan did a really good job in the music department.

On the whole the movie’s focus is very contemporary. But the cinematic outlook of it isn’t that inspiring or disturbing. The movie can give you certain facts about the situation of landless people in our state, but beyond that there isn’t much to engage.