Happiness is Ganesh Raj’s calling card; one would wrestle to search out an sad second in his work. Even the most important of crises would appear moderately inconsequential when handled light-heartedly. On this planet that he envisions, heat colors come out of each different body. Mild, feel-good music goes on and on within the background. Tears are principally out of happiness, moderately than sorrow. For that matter, his debut film itself was titled Aanandam(happiness).
Whereas Aanandam was set round a bunch of children on a university journey, in his sophomore work Pookkaalam, it’s the older technology — a pair who’re practically 100 years outdated and have been married for eighty years — who takes centre stage. On the day of their granddaughter Elsy’s (Annu Antony) betrothal, Ittoop (Vijayaraghavan) by chance discovers an outdated letter written fifty years in the past. The letter threatens to solid a cloud on the completely happy event, bringing as much as the floor the household’s buried secrets and techniques
Pookkaalam (Malayalam)
Director: Ganesh Raj
Forged: Vijayaraghavan, KPAC Leela, Annu Antony, Basil Joseph, Vineeth Sreenivasan, Arun Kurian, Jagadish
Runtime: 137 minutes
Storyline: An outdated letter found on the day of his granddaughter’s betrothal disturbs the peace of Ittoop, bringing his household’s buried secrets and techniques to the fore
The novel theme is what drives a lot of the film, however Ganesh, who has additionally scripted it, ensures that it doesn’t tread on terrains which are too scorching to deal with, simply stopping brief each time the film threatens to slide out of the feel-good zone. Nicely, it’s not flawed to play to your strengths. It’s the sort of materials that would have ended up as a heart-wrenching story if dealt with by another person.
A lot of Pookkaalam focuses on the nice and cozy relationship between Ittoop and his spouse Kochuthresia (KPAC Leela), and the massive prolonged household round them, at current. But, it takes periodic shifts to the previous, of their early days of struggles and private losses, which supplies us an concept of the influence that the disaster would have on the close-knit household. The disaster additionally shines a lightweight on the disagreeable episodes that individuals wilfully neglect to maintain the ship crusing easily. Individuals who appear sober of their outdated age may need completed horrible issues prior to now. At one level, Kochuthresia ominously tells Ittoop, “We now have been residing on this home for eighty years. If we dig deep round right here, we’d discover uncomfortable issues.”
Ganesh makes an attempt to steadiness each emotional second rapidly with a light-hearted scene, some working and a few don’t. As an illustration, a working joke involving a junior advocate (Basil Joseph) and his outdated buddy (Vineeth Sreenivasan), who’s now a decide, appears a bit pressured. Regardless of all of the youthful solid of actors round them, Vijayaraghavan and KPAC Leela hog all of the limelight with their shifting performances because the couple who’re going through a disaster late of their lives. Within the moments that he acts stern, Vijayaraghavan brings again recollections of his father N.N.Pillai’s iconic character ‘Anjooran’ in Godfather.
Pookkaalam is a feel-good household entertainer with a novel theme that ends moderately tamely and predictably.
Pookkaalam is at present working in theatres
