Ottayaal Paatha – The Narrow Path

I happened to see this beautifully pitched emotional movie on father-son relationship “Ottayaal Paatha” as part of KIFF (Kozhikode International Film Festival). With almost zero gimmicks of an offbeat film, directors Santosh Babusenan and Satish Babusenan gives life to a heartening story of a lively bond between a father and son.

Akhil is this engineering graduate who wants to move to Bangalore for a better job along with the girl he loves. One day prior to this shifting, he is yet to tell his father about this plan. As he knows that his father will get mad at him for this decision, he is looking for a perfect way to pitch the decision. What happens in that one day is what Ottayaal Paatha narrating.

The uniqueness of the repartee between the father and son is the captivating element of the film.  The care they have for each other is shown in ways that adds a realistic quality to the narration. An anecdote in the middle part of the movie narrated by Vikraman, the father becomes a vital emotional element in the film and the build up towards that point is quite organic and real. As I said there is no gimmick of making it an art house film and all the minimal symbolism works fine.  From depicting the life of slum people to the delicate emotions of human beings Ottayaal Paatha covers a lot in its small runtime.

Kaladharan K has portrayed the role of the father in this film and without a doubt I can say that it is a terrific performance. The character was not just being a casual cool insulting father figure. There were sequences that showed the inner pain of the slightly possessive father and the actor was too good in being Vikraman. The role of the son is portrayed by Sarath Sabha. The relatively new face shows great potential in being a quality actor. A natural feel is there in his performance and at some extremely dramatic areas he fumbles a little bit. The two female characters in the movie were just okay as the dialogue delivery sounded a bit odd.

Santosh Babusenan and Satish Babusenan make the movie lively even without having any sort of background score. The verbal exchanges between the characters have sensible humor, anger and emotional turmoil. Only a few bits that try to show the vulnerability of certain characters has a theatrical feel to its credit. Other than that, the least verbally explained intention of Ottayaal Paatha is sound enough to give you that impact which we get to feel when that BGM starts to play at the very end of this film. The screenplay successfully establishes the care the father and son have for each other without much melodrama. And it uses mostly sincere emotional outbursts to construct that connect between them. Cinematographer familiarizes us about the location through repeated static frames of the surroundings. Lack of a good budget is evident as we can see poor quality of visuals and also the compromised sound mixing.

The technical quality of Ottayaal Paatha may be on the weaker side, but the cinematic elegance of sincere story telling makes it a film that makes you applaud the makers for the effort they have put in. Don’t know when or whether the film would get released, if you get a chance to see this one please don’t miss it.

Rating: 3.5/5

By Aswin Bharadwaj

Founder and editor of Lensmen Reviews.

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