Monday, January 26, 2009

Chayamukhi: To See, Not Look ...

Photo Courtesy: P. Sandeep, Flickr

Based on the epic Mahabharatam, 'Chayamukhi' is a very enjoyable drama from Mohanlal, Mukesh and team from Kerala. They were in Bangalore yesterday and was lucky not to have missed the opportunity to watch it.

Malayalam cinema's biggest star, Mohanlal is an actor extraordinaire and watching a drama with him in the lead role was a memorable and thrilling experience for me. With his aura, Mohanlal was a towering presence on stage and was ably complemented by other actors, musical scores and all the other things that went into the making of Chayamukhi.

The story is a largely a trip through the minds of Bheeman and Keechakan (played by Mukesh) and to a lesser extent that of Draupadi (Aparna Nair). Bheeman is on a long journey to find his true love. And one that helps/that-does-not-help him in the process is a mirror named, Chayamukhi. Chayamukhi, per story, is a magical mirror looking into which helps one see his/her heart-throb. Gifted to Bheeman by Hidumbi, it changes hands (to Draupadi and then to Keechakan) before getting broken into pieces, creating a lot of heart-burn in the process.

In the story, Bheeman fails to realize his true love but playing that role, Mohanlal with his flawless act and dialog delivery wins a immeasurable amount of love from the audience. I thoroughly enjoyed the show and there were times when I felt transplanted to a different world altogether. A kind of feeling that only a drama and not cinema can offer. The story is punctuated with great music and time utilization (an un-interrupted total duration of 2 hours and 10 minutes) and on-stage depictions (of a forest, river, winter festival etc.) are worth mentioning.

Don't miss it, if there is one being played in your city and I for one wouldn't mind watching it one more time, :-)

Update (02/02): My friend Pramod, shares a link with pictures of Mammootty, the other great of Malayalam cinema, playing Bheeman.

http://sify.com/movies/malayalam/imagegallery/galleryDetail.php?hcategory=13733817&hgallery=14790323

This one is based on noted writer M.T. Vasudevan Nair's novel, 'Randamoozham'. Reserving my comments (and can-not-avoid comparisons with Mohanlal's Bheeman) till I get to see Mammootty in action.

Mammootty, when are you planning to come to Bangalore, as Bheeman?

4 comments:

Jyothi Radhakrishnan said...

delete the update blog. Chayamukhi description otherwise looks good

Muthukrishnan Rajaram said...

hmm... sounds very intereseting. esp. after you say "The story is a largely a trip through the minds of Bheeman and Keechakan and to a lesser extent that of Draupadi"... should watch, I think...

Nidhi♡ said...

Hi Muthukrishnan,

Thanks for the note. Yeah, I would strongly recommend Chayamukhi

Unknown said...

Sir Please add my name too..am the writer,director of chayamukhi...