Official Trailer:

Thanks to COVID, had to settle for muted new year get together and celebrations. I was given the task to pick a movie to end 2020 and welcome 2021 with. Key criteria for the selection – it has to leave us with a high and in an upbeat mood. So, Paava Kadhaigal type movies are ruled out. One can always settle for safe list, movies from watched and preferred list, great masala flick like Ayyappanum Koshiyum or comedies like MMKR, Death at the funeral, When Harry Met Sally, Burn after reading, or intellectually stirring movies like Top Gun (😁). But wanted to go with a movie not watched yet. I have heard good things about C/o Kancharapalem but had no inkling about what kind of drama it is, feel good, a tear jerker or a movie with hard message.

Settled on C/o Kancharapalem. When the clock hit 12 midnight, had to pause the movie for new year wishes. With another 30+ minutes left, all four love story tracks had either hit a road block or failed, wasn’t clear yet how the threads are going to be tied together and how it is going to end. I was getting the feel it is going to be another love tragedy. As I sat through the climax, I was in complete awe and first thing that popped in my head was what a great way to start 2021. I have to be honest, I didn’t and couldn’t guess the final twist at all. C/o Kancharapalem is a director’s movie with solid writing, detailed characterizations, convincing performances from first time actors, and music.

Movie starts slow taking its time to introduce the characters from Kancharapalem. In this small village everyone knows each other and guess there is no place for secrets. For example, villagers hold a meeting to discuss why Raju who is 49 years old, still not married, is he a gay, and is he a threat to children? With all new faces (trivia says nearly 80+ actors are from Kancharapalem village with no acting experience), it takes little bit time to ease in to the movie. As the story progresses, without you even knowing it, you start investing in the characters from four romances – of school children Sunita and Sundaram, 20 something Bhargavi and Joseph, 30 something Gaddam and Saleema, and that of Raju and Radha, an officer from Odisha. Narration jumps between these 4 threads (doesn’t disorient us) and director with his smart writing organically weaves in issues of love, sex, religion, caste, gender, feminism, and dignity of labor. A love song from Maro Charitra brings together Sunita and Sundaram, both oblivious to the meaning of the song, but also plays havoc. Religion rears its ugly head in Joseph-Bhargav and Gaddam-Saleema stories. Raju-Radha story delves in to the question of gender sensitivity, age and marriage, and feminism. All these fault lines are deftly handled and staged by the director. Like in real life, we jump from one emotion to another as the story progresses. Conversations between Gaddam and Saleema, Radha and her daughter are fresh, progressive, and gives you goosebumps.

[SPOILERS ALERT]

As the four stories progressed, I kept wondering where the director is going with all these. How are all these threads going to get connected? With the final twist, director, Venkatesh Maha, cleverly glues everything together. It felt so epic and grand. There are enough clues given on the way leading to the final twist, since we are so engaged and invested in each thread, we miss to pay attention. The choice of Maro Charitra song that feels so out of place as you go through it fits in so magically with the final twist. Final closure explains why Raju believes in people than the gods.

As I replayed the whole movie in my head post the final twist, I was in full appreciation of the Raju’s character arc development, how his inner self goes through changes, losing his faith in religion and gods and moving towards humanity. His outer self too – choice of different actors for younger versions of Raju and smart use of names come across as clever choice than as cheap tricks. It requires a second watch to appreciate the ingenious and wonderful writing. Highly commendable the way director has dealt with religion, god, love, sex and humanism leaving no room for anyone to claim hurt sentiments 😁

Week leading to 2021 has been a good one when it comes to movies. Finally caught up with two Malayalam movies from the watchlist, Trance, and Android Kunjappan Ver 5.25. Android Kunjappan, a light-hearted sci-fi dramedy, starts well, has good number of threads to work with, but loses focus on what it wants to be as it moves along. But still engages us with interesting characters of the Payyanur village (something only writers from Mollywood seem to be capable of…something to do with the food? 🤔) and excellent performances from Suraj Venjaramoodu as the old man and Soubin Shahir as his son. Trance deals with religious evangelists, and their impact on vulnerable population. A strong and an ambitious writing by Vincent Vadakkan, brilliant performances from Fahadh Fassil and the trinity, GVM, Dileesh Pothan, and Chemban Vinod Jose, and Vinayakan, keeps us engaged. Movie is packed with Easter eggs, Christian symbols, biblical references, motivational messages, fish in the bowl, and belief systems. Even though movie focuses on Christian evangelists, the issue it deals with is equally applicable to godmen and evangelists from other religions. The healing events we laugh at in the first half turns dead serious in the second half.  Viju turns in to JC when he is in trance and he gets his followers in to trance to peddle his message and become a rich man. It does get convoluted in second half but a much-needed movie for the times we live in.