It was a journey into the heart of darkness. Or more like the journey the kids made in William Golding's Lord of the flies. The film was Idavela directed by Mohan sir. What struck me was the writing. The economy of expression while plumbing into the baser instincts of adolescent kids. It had to be him! Padmarajan. The ambient darkness offset the lightness of the kids until they hurtled into tragedy sharply reminiscent of Picnic at Hanging Rock. I'm neither equipped to make a candid appraisal of his writing in films like Kaanamarayathu nor comment on his ascent as a director. This is perhaps a tribute to a director who unraveled emotions like waves lapping a sea shore especially in Thinkalazhcha Nalla Divasam, Kariyila Kattu Pole, Namukku Parkkan Munthiri Thoppukal , Thoovanathumbikal , Desatanakkili Karayarilla and Innale. Films which resonated with a welter of human emotions like angst, separation, romance, longing and lust.
I hesitate to draw parallels between say a Guru Dutt or a Raj Khosla who were equally adept at the interplay of human emotions when I write about Padmarajan sir. But he had that. An unobtrusive knack of turning the spotlight on the minutest of human foibles.
Thilakan sir's longing for his dead grandson in Moonnam Pakkam, Madhavi chasing into the forest for her lost child in Nombarathi Poovu. Mammootty’s metamorphosis from unrelenting to caring in Kariyila Kattu Pole or Kaviyoor Ponnamma's disbelief when her son's suggest that she live in a home for the aged in Thinkalazhcha Nalla Divasam is the stuff only great directors are able to tap into actors. Don't know if the fact that he wrote his scripts into the fabric of the technique of his film-making added substantially.
45 is too young an age to go away and you can see in his films the same preoccupation with death. Be it Moonnam Pakkam, Thinkalazhcha Nalla Divasam, Kariyila Kattu Pole or even Idavela which he didn't direct but wrote.
The lyricism of his dialogue comes into full play in a film like Thoovanathumbikal or Namukku Parkkan Munthiri Thoppukal, obviously in no small measure contributed by thespian Mohanlal. The grace of his interactions with Clara (The dewy beauty Sumalatha), the insouciance of his body language until real love takes over. Padmarajan underpinned sense along with sensuality. You can see it in Jayaram's frenzied embrace of Shobana when Suresh Gopi decides to walk away in Innale.
I'm especially taken up by the grammar in Desatanakkili Karayarilla. Forbidden love is hinted at amidst joviality and teenage rebellion. You know the signs and you know it's all going to end in calamity. Yet the buoyancy of writing and the terrific performances of the lead pair Shaari and Karthika make it such a sparkling film in his lineup of knockout films.
Rahman's innocence in Koodevide. A wide-eyed Parvathy in Thoovanathumbikal. The young lovers cuckoo and Ashokan in Thinkalazhcha Nalla Divasam. Karthika's caution as opposed to Shaari's tempestuousness in Desatanakkili Karayarilla are the master stroke of a man of wisdom who was perhaps a child at work or believed in the in-credulousness of youth. There is also foreboding. In between all the music an underpinning of doom exists. You know Shaari has a story roiling beneath her introverted state in Namukku Parkkan Munthiri Thoppukal. Sripriya is over cautious about her daughter Karthika in Kariyila Kattu Pole. Because there is history. And history often takes away the music and leaves us with painful memories. Padmarajan was that Pied Piper who would sedulously lead us to believe that a great future awaits until it's too late to turn back.
Perhaps the Gandharvan in Njan Gandharvan was his own voice. Which said the astral body can never love or stay on earth for too long once his work is done. Sir you left a lot unsaid. The work wasn't over. The promise to the Vineyards still remain unfulfilled...