Kaiyyoppu(a Malayalam movie) leaves you heavy-hearted. The feeling of the abruptness of life grows on you, when you leave the cinema. The movie is just an hour and 40 minutes long, there are no elements that are thrust upon a commercial movie to draw in different strata of society so that the box office choruses `money, money, honey, money'.
"The story and treatment did not warrant more than this duration," says director Ranjit, who had the guts to make Kaiyyoppu. It was released in small theaters all over the State without fanfare. "I knew it was not the kind that attracts everybody. It is social reality, a slice of life without props, props that usually make you sit for two-plus hours, taking in the make believe world,". Kaiyyoppu has his story and he has co-scripted it with Ambika Suthan.
Was terrorism an afterthought? Ranjit say's "It is life, reality. I want people to know that terrorism is not confined to Delhi, Kashmir or Assam. It is here, at our doorstep. When a blast happens, those dead are mere numbers for readers, 100, 200, 1000. No one knows the story of the victims' families. I have tried to tell the story of one such victim. Your daily routine and life can well turn into a nightmare if it's your kin who is a victim."
Mammooty, (Balachandran) the protagonist, works in a fertilizer outlet. He is the writer of an unfinished novel, someone who is suffering from a severe bout of writer's block. He lives in a lodge(in Kochi) where very ordinary people with minimum income live. An established writer gets to read his unfinished manuscript and announces at a meeting that it will be one of the best works to date, when finished. Mukesh, (Sivadasan), a publisher fallen on bad days, befriends the writer in the hope of getting the book for publication. They become close friends. However, inspiration comes in the form of an old flame, Khushboo (Padma) who relives over the phone, their college days. That she is divorced sends a ray of hope to the protagonist. Balachandran is truly inspired and the writer's block jumps out the window. He writes in a frenzy. Just when things are falling into place, the face of terrorism surfaces, towards the third part of the movie. The tempo changes, characters fall off the groove of their daily routine, and the story moves to its finale. Everything remains unfinished: hopes, dreams, and the novel too remains unread.
Kaiyyoppu, which means signature, only means every person has a unique life, each so different from another, with his/her stamp, says Ranjit. Simplicity is the hallmark of Kaiyyoppu.
A song that Khushboo sings over the phone, an old Talat Mahmood number, `Jalte hai jis ke liye... ' like anybody might, over the phone, without any background music, has become a hit. You want the old lovers to unite, the little girl to become better, the publisher to do well, and to read that book, when the world turns upside down... .The pain of the characters in Kaiyyoppu seeps into the cine goer.
"The story and treatment did not warrant more than this duration," says director Ranjit, who had the guts to make Kaiyyoppu. It was released in small theaters all over the State without fanfare. "I knew it was not the kind that attracts everybody. It is social reality, a slice of life without props, props that usually make you sit for two-plus hours, taking in the make believe world,". Kaiyyoppu has his story and he has co-scripted it with Ambika Suthan.
Was terrorism an afterthought? Ranjit say's "It is life, reality. I want people to know that terrorism is not confined to Delhi, Kashmir or Assam. It is here, at our doorstep. When a blast happens, those dead are mere numbers for readers, 100, 200, 1000. No one knows the story of the victims' families. I have tried to tell the story of one such victim. Your daily routine and life can well turn into a nightmare if it's your kin who is a victim."
Mammooty, (Balachandran) the protagonist, works in a fertilizer outlet. He is the writer of an unfinished novel, someone who is suffering from a severe bout of writer's block. He lives in a lodge(in Kochi) where very ordinary people with minimum income live. An established writer gets to read his unfinished manuscript and announces at a meeting that it will be one of the best works to date, when finished. Mukesh, (Sivadasan), a publisher fallen on bad days, befriends the writer in the hope of getting the book for publication. They become close friends. However, inspiration comes in the form of an old flame, Khushboo (Padma) who relives over the phone, their college days. That she is divorced sends a ray of hope to the protagonist. Balachandran is truly inspired and the writer's block jumps out the window. He writes in a frenzy. Just when things are falling into place, the face of terrorism surfaces, towards the third part of the movie. The tempo changes, characters fall off the groove of their daily routine, and the story moves to its finale. Everything remains unfinished: hopes, dreams, and the novel too remains unread.
Kaiyyoppu, which means signature, only means every person has a unique life, each so different from another, with his/her stamp, says Ranjit. Simplicity is the hallmark of Kaiyyoppu.
A song that Khushboo sings over the phone, an old Talat Mahmood number, `Jalte hai jis ke liye... ' like anybody might, over the phone, without any background music, has become a hit. You want the old lovers to unite, the little girl to become better, the publisher to do well, and to read that book, when the world turns upside down... .The pain of the characters in Kaiyyoppu seeps into the cine goer.
