Patham Nilayile Theevandi Malayalam Movie
'Patham Nilayile Theevandi' is a film that genuinely attempts to take a closer look at the boundary that draws the line between sanity and the lack of it, but remains underdeveloped and oddly confused. It tries to move away from conventions and yet hold its audience close, but doesn't really succeed in doing so.
A former employee of the Railways (Innocent) struggles to regain his self in a mental asylum, and is traumatized by the sound of trains whizzing past in his ears all the time. He starts writing letters to his son (Jayasurya), requesting him to take him away from the hospital, now that his sickness has been almost cured. The repeated appeals of the old man fall on deaf ears, as his son carries on with his busy life, unaware of the fact that trains do get derailed from skyscraper tops as well.
This is brilliant material for a daunting film, but unfortunately 'Patham Nilayile Theevandi' looks like a half baked cookie that wouldn't melt in your mouth. There are a few impressions that it leaves, but sadly these impressions never bond together to produce that wondrous effect that's characteristic of certain fine films.
For the most part of it, the film has been competently scripted, effectively stringing together those loose bits and pieces. However, in the last ten minutes of the film, the train runs off the rails and the anguish and despair as experienced by the son, who roams around on the brink of madness himself is hardly expressed. On the other hand, with the doctor's arrival at his apartment to announce that schizophrenia might be hereditary, the film steers away from its course and starts appearing extremely overwrought.
The entire drama that has been cooked up in the final moments of the film, robs the film of its fineness. The disintegration, as experienced by the son is not cathartic. I wonder if he has been driven into a state of psychic depression on account of the feelings of guilt that have been ruling his mind for long, or if his emotions merely act as a catalyst to the genetic traits that have been lying inherent in him for long.
The film belongs entirely to Innocent who does an excellent job of what he has been offered. A far cry indeed from the kind of movies that he had always been seen in, this is a role that offers him some meat for a change. Jayasurya is quite competent as well, and he sticks on to his tradition of adding on some extra to his performance, whenever the role puts up some sort of a challenge before the actor inside him.
'Patham Nilayile Theevandi' has a theme that is haunting and even moving at times, but fails to keep the narrative going on in full steam. Like the deafening hoots of the trains that zoom past in its protagonist's psyche, it creates a noisy turmoil in the viewer's mind that at first unnerves and gradually torments.
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