Pinneyum Malayalam Movie
They say that when the mighty fall, the clamor is all the more deafening. And it goes true for 'Pinneyum', a film that is left meandering halfway between an art factory venture and a commercial enterprise that so badly wants to please, as irrational as the classifying of cinema into such impermeable compartments might seem.
It has been eight long years since Adoor had last donned the director's mantle, and to say that expectations regarding his latest film were middling would probably be an understatement. And the reason for this has been that his recent cinematic outings had emerged a far cry from some of his earlier classic films that had earned him the standing of a filmmaker of immense repute.
'Pinneyum' talks of Purushothaman Nair (Dileep) and his wife Devi (Kavya Madhavan), and of the love that has seemingly vanished from their lives, what with the man roaming around jobless and the woman having to make both ends meet. It isn't easy for Devi and she gives vent to her frustrations by taking it out vehemently on her hapless husband.
When Nair grabs a job in the Middle East, it looks like their woe ship is finally set to see land. And it's here that the film maker attempts a volte-face and races the film towards thriller territory; an appalling makeover from which it never really recovers and ends up a mishmash of a film that never really achieves what it had originally set out for.
There are the two very obvious let downs when it comes to 'Pinneyum' and the first and the more apparent is without doubt the over- the- top performances of the supporting cast that inflate the theatricality of the affairs even further. Which brings us to the latter, not so perceptible downer - the dramatic script that is riddled with simulated dialogues that lend a false air to the whole picture; never letting it move you, not even for a single moment.
This isn't exactly a fresh ground that Adoor lays the groundwork of his new film on, and avarice and its aftermath has been explored by many a film maker, time and again. And here there is an overstating of the obvious, that often defies the credibility and also questions the intellect, that makes 'Pinneyum' a far less intriguing film than it should truly have been.
This overwrought ambience that the film sports throughout, does do away with the extended silences and the literally still frames and makes an almost intentional effort to reach out straight across to the audience. What is lacking however are the subtle subtexts that had made some of the film maker's former films enthralling.
The lead actors however lend the very best that they have on offer, and Dileep and Kavya Madhavan see to it that they do not disappoint. Nedumudi Venu and Indrans also appear in significant roles, while some of the fresh faces ham it up to the hilt and totally disappoint.
On retrospect, 'Pinneyum' strikes us as little more than a sentimental pile of overworked emotions. Clearly not a film that one would expect of Adoor, it's an ineffective reformulation of a familiar theme that gets lost between cinematic genres.