Vaastavam

Rajappan · Posted: Sat Dec 09, 2006 3:55 am Post subject: Vaastavam

The Pritviraj-Padmakumar team has given us something to cheer. After Ammakilikoodu and Vargam, they have come out with Vaasthavam, a gutsy and realistic film, like its title. It is brilliantly executed film on the rampant corruption, power struggle and hypocrisy in corridors of the state secretariat in Thiruvananthapuram.

Balachandran Adiga (Pritviraj) is the only son of Raghavan Master (Sreeraman) a Namboothiri landlord who lost all his wealth and property being in politics. Balan has three unmarried sisters and the family is in poverty.

His childhood sweetheart is Sumitra (Kavya Madhavan) whom he deeply loves but is forced to marry Surabhi (Samvrutha) as her uncle (Salim Kumar) is a rich contractor who promises financial help to the family. Balan goes to Thiruvananthapuram and joins the state secretariat as a clerk and is taken under the wings of Unnithan (Jagathy) a veteran.

A naïve but ambitious Balan learns that to make it to the top one has to shed principles and values. He turns corrupt and uses people who come his way like Unnithan, Vimala Thankachi (Sindhu Menon) and others. He becomes the private secretary of Pattom Ravindran (Murali) the Revenue Minister. Balan uses money and muscle power to play dirty games in politics and thereby becoming the powerful kingmaker of Kerala politics.

In the meantime the three women in his life leave him- Sumitra who had married a policeman, Vimala who wants to take revenge on him and wife Surabhi. And finally when realization dawns on him that money and power are nothing, he craves for true love. But it’s too late. Balan is targeted by his detractors!

Pritviraj as Balan Adiga has given a knockout performance and his transformation from an ordinary guy from Kasaragod to the shrewd manipulator of Kerala politics, turns out to be the scene stealer. Babu Janadharnan’s screenplay has justified the characters vaulting ambitions and naked power play to remain the king maker till the end. Though the character has shades of grey, our sympathies go out to him as Padmakumar has etched it out beautifully.

Kavya, Sindhu, Samvrutha and Sona Nair have done their respective roles well. But it is Jagathy Sreekumar as Unnithan who comes out with a life like performance. He proves that he is one of the finest actors in Malayalam cinema.

The camera of Manoj Pillai, Alex Paul’s soothing music and crisp editing by veteran L.Bhuminathan are the added highlights of this racy film. This modern day version of Thakazhi’s classic Eanipadikal drives home a few truths about the rot in our bureaucracy.

Padmakumar can be proud of Vaasthavam which is a well-crafted meaningful cinema.

Verdict: Good