When M T And laljose attempted a remake of their 'Neelathamara', the very first thing that they did was to create an epilogue and prologue to the original storyline, that helped the movie to stand on itself as an independent film, which gave a feel-fresh look even for the fans of the original.And needless to say, it worked big time for the movie which ended as a family hit.
But it is indeed, a difficult attempt to recreate a cult classic like `Rathinirvedham' with the same scripts, settings and same time frames, 35 years from the arrival of the original, as the chances of 'storylines feeling outdated' is very much there. Director T K Rajeevkumar has gone for such a risk, tried to reconstruct the times and has managed to weave a watchable movie, though it cannot be compared with the inherent sincerity of the original.
The movie has almost the same scripts with some mild corrections, and here we have Sreejith Vijay in the role of Pappu, who arrive for a brief vacation to his mother's village, where he falls for the much elder Rathy Chechy (Played by Shwetha Menon). The movie goes on to tell how the adolescent attractions turn to lust.
Rajeevkumar has taken much pains to bring in the visual symbols of the 78, including Panama cigarettes, Mark 3 Ambassador cars, Vijay scooters and magazines of the times, to the little noticed switches and fans of the two adjacent houses.But the costumer of the movie seems to have thwarted the directors' meticulous attempts, with Rathy chechy's wardrobes always ending up projected than ever before.Her dress codes offers a lot of fantasy elements and appear artificial, which takes out the innocent charms of the character, who in the original could have never thought about grabbing unwanted attention from the adolescent neighbour.
And when answering the big question about the comparisons between Jayabharathy and Shwetha Menon, the later seems to have decided to do it her own way, which is applaudable. Shwetha appears a little more bulky and aged than the character-demands of Rathy and is always shown in aggressive stronger veins, missing her lighter feminine traits of timorousness of the original.In fact, the skin show in this replication seems forced, with deliberate camera shots intended to expose and with every such sequences coming- in with a synthetic makeover. Moreover, we are also made understood that Shwetha hardly know the typical malayalee way of doing things including the sweeping of the floor. Though the movie progresses in the lines of the original scripts, 'innocence' in the happenings is missing here all through and the sequences appear strangely disjointed.
The fresh face in Sreejith Vijay is quite impressive and does his parts very well. All over, he is a treat to watch, delivering an extremely natural performance though his chemistry with Shwetha is questionable. His dubbing is taken good care of by dubbing artist Saiju, who has impressively adlibed in the climax too. All others in the cast including Shammi Thilakan, Maya Viswanath and two children who plays Pappus' siblings do a wonderful job and makes an impression.
In the technical front,everything is perfect with Manoj Pillai's camera and B Ajith kumar's editing.But the choreography of the songs by Samudra team, with protagonists in fashionable outfits, appears a mismatch. M Jayachandran's hundredth offering as a music director is worth a hear with good songs such as 'Kannoram'. His BG sores also adds to the emotional values of the sequences.
On the whole, Rathinirvedham' is a mediocre product that has some lively moments. At the box-office, the aggressive promos, and sensuous stills in the posters will fill in the male audience in the initial weeks, but the sustaining power is less as the current- day family audiences may not look forward to watch the movie.But since the film is a low-cost one with few characters and few locations, it should prove to be a profitable venture on the strength of its economics!
