Cinema @ PWD Rest House Malayalam Movie

Feature Film | 2014
Critics:
'Cinema @ PWD Rest House' is yet another addition to those films that chronicle the tremendous efforts and anguish that underlie a modest film production. Bordering on the melodramatic, 'Cinema @ PWD Rest House' tries hard to make a few statements against the prevailing state of affairs in Malayalam cinema, but comes across as merciless tedium that runs for about two hours and a bit more.
Feb 8, 2015 By Veeyen


'Cinema @ PWD Rest House' is yet another addition to those films that chronicle the tremendous efforts and anguish that underlie a modest film production. Bordering on the melodramatic, 'Cinema @ PWD Rest House' tries hard to make a few statements against the prevailing state of affairs in Malayalam cinema, but comes across as merciless tedium that runs for about two hours and a bit more.


Ajayan (Asok Kumar) is an actor who had pledged everything that he had to produce and act in a film with disastrous consequences. When the film ends up in a no-man zone, Ajayan incurs heavy losses and has ever since been staying in a room at the PWD rest house, along with his partner-in-distress and director of his debut film Sivan (Manikandan Pattambi).


There are very few friends and well wishers who still rally around the duo, and these include a cinematographer of music albums, Sumesh (Jijoy) and another inhabitant of the rest house (Poojappura Ravi). Together they nurture their hopes of making a film one day that would salvage from the misery that their dreams have landed them in.


At best, 'Cinema @ PWD Rest House' serves to question the system of patrilineal inheritance that they believe, rules Malayalam cinema. A distraught Ajayan asks as to why sons of superstars and script writers have it the easy way in cinema, when thousands of strugglers like himself find themselves at the cross roads with no takers.


The television channel policies are discussed as well, and it's firmly asserted that films with no known names are given the cold shoulder by the channels. Though the film makes it clear that its tale or characters bear no resemblance to anyone living or dead, it brings in two actors whom the film makers approach for their new film, and who bear an uncanny resemblance to actors whom we know. Coincidence, perhaps!


What makes me give 'Cinema @ PWD Rest House' a total thumbs down is the fact, that apart from these very pertinent discussion points that it offers in the beginning, there is little else in the film that manages to catch even your remote interest. Surprisingly, the film dwells so much on the travails of the film makers for the first hour that make you wonder if they are ever going to get their points across and set the story rolling for a change.


On the one side, the film makes an avowal that the audience tastes have gone for a toss, though at a later point, someone insists that there is always an audience for good cinema. What it tends to forget is that generalizations are simply not applicable to the film loving public, as long as it is able to relate to the characters that it gets to see on screen - new gen, old gen or whatever term that you might to choose to ascribe the film with.


There are ample digressions as well, in the form of two women characters - Ajayan's love and Sivan's wife. While the former is distraught that Ajayan has disappeared without a trace after having pawned her jewellery, the latter lives in the hope that Sivan would soon come by to see their daughter who is barely two years old. Unfortunately both these plot lines are ruined in no time, (no) thanks to some startlingly incompetent acting by the actresses concerned.


Manikandan Pattambi does manage to put in his best into 'Cinema @ PWD Rest House', while Asok Kumar just about gets it right. I was most impressed by Jijoy in this film, who brings in an admirable level of energy in the scenes that we find him in. There are also seasoned artistes like Madhu, Mamukkoya and Poojappura Ravi around.


It's quite unfortunate that 'Cinema @ PWD Rest House' is made to go through the gloom experienced by small scale film makers; a theme that it seems to be so stringently dwelling on. With barely less than ten people in the cinema hall for the very first show, it's time to think where they themselves have gone wrong, and what is that has kept the audience away from the cinema halls.


Veeyen

   

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