Thoovanathumbikal / Dragonflies in the Spraying Rain: Visually remarkable and script-writing at the best form.
Padmarajan’s classic Malayalam movie ‘Thoovanamthumbikal’ (Dragonflies in the Spraying Rain), brings love and passion together.
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Written and directed by Padmarajan
Starring: Mohanlal, Sumalatha, Parvathi, Ashokan, Babu Namboothiri
Music: P. G. Raveendranath
Cinematography: Ajayan Vincent
Editing: B. Lenin
Language: Malayalam
Release: 1987
Based on a novel 'Udakappola' by P. Padmarajan himself.
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The movie revolves around few incidents of Jayakrishnan's life, a person who live with completely two different images and status in his village and near-by town. We feel his romantic side, we see his happiness, we walk along with him in a part of his life and we meet Clara, Radha, his friends, etc…
Radha: An innocent homely girl who falls in love with Jayakrishnan, and ready to wait for him as long as she can.
Clara: Jayakrishnan accidently become the person who took Clara’s virginity. Her first customer in the field of prostitution.
Radha comes to his life - he falls in love with her – she rejects and insults him – Jayakrishnan feels sympathy on Clara - relationship grows – Clara moves away from Jayakrishnan because she couldn’t reject the proposal from him – Radha falls in love – their relationship grows near to marriage – Clara comes back.
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Jayakrishnan is a character which would have faded away in another actor’s hand. An awesome performance, his mannerism, his body language, his tone everything makes us to forget the actor, Mohanlal, and we see only Jayakrishnan. An unforgettable role for any Malayalam movie fans. The characterization of Clara has to be one of the best of all time, she is different, she is bold, she is innocent, she is sweet, and her relationship with Jayakrishnan just increases the beauty of the character, and at the end she marries another person just to remove her name from Jayakrishnan’s heart. A feel of sympathy is around her character throughout the film; watch it numerous times and you will feel for her again and again
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* The characters of the movie reminds of characters from the Russian novel ‘The Idiot’, by Dostoevsky, where the character such as Myskin, Anasthasya, and Aglea replaced by Jayakrishnan, Clara and Radha. The story doesn’t have anything to do with the other, but the characters alone.
* Padmaraja never tried to focus the beauty of the locations, but rather focused on the actors and beauty just added to the scenes as background. Eg. Waves hitting Clara in the sea-shore, Jayakrishnan reading a telegram of Clara on a rainy day, Jayakrishnan writing a letter to Clara while it’s raining outside etc…
* Romantic episode of Jayakrishnan and Clara is something so soothing and memorable. Their relationship is so hard to explain, against the society, still have a beauty in it.
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Rain is another character of the movie along with Jayakrishnan, Clara and Radha. Rain was with Jayakrishnan and Clara throughout the movie. Every meeting of Clara and Jayakrishnan had rain’s presence. Eg. When Jayakrishnan write a letter Clara, when they go out, in the railway station, when Jayakrishnan receives a letter from Clara… Rain just reflected their relationship, and when she says she won’t come back again to meet Jayakrishnan – we see no rain, everything is dried up. That’s the beauty of the greatness of Padmarajan.
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Rarely does any director in India have combined beautiful images, with brilliant background music, with a strong plot and great performances like Padmarajan, followed by Maniratnam. Eg. Iruvar, Kannathil Muthamittal etc. Padmarajan and Maniratnam have many similarities. Eg, the use of rain to tell the emotion of a scene Eg. Alaipayuthey, Namukku Parkkan Munthiri Thoppukal etc...
Padmarajan, is without questioning the best script writer Malayalam had ever produced. If he was a Tamil or Hindi writer he would have received more respect, and he surely deserve more respect.
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Visually remarkable and script-writing at its best
Rating: 4.5 / 5
I read all your reviews. Very insightful reading of Malayalam Cinema.
ReplyDeleteMost of the views were completely matching with mine except at a few places. Especially, the parts where you talk very less of a legend like Sreenivasan, who are one of the three/four best screenwriters of Malayalam Cinema History. Adoor had said once that Vadakkunokki Yanthram is one of the best 10 movies in the world. (I admit that the movies you mentioned were below average be it Saroj Kumar or Bhargava Charitham. Although Kilichundan Mambazham and Udayananu Tharam were also good enough)
Also, I would have given a 5 for Thoovanathumbikal and Devasuram along with Kireedam and Manichitra Thazhu.
All the best for future avenues.
That is cool. Extremely sorry for the very late reply. I never used to get any kind of mail or notificaton about the comments getting posted here.
ReplyDeleteAbsolutely, Sreenivasan is one of the best from Malayalam. No doubt about it. I rate his Vadakkunokki Yanthram and Sandesham, as top class.