Creating a historical biopic with the needed cinematic developments is not that easy like crafting any other genres of film. Director 'PT Kunhi Mohammed' would have learned many lessons about that after the completion of his latest 'Veeraputhran' based on the life of freedom fighter, orator and writer Mohammad Abdu Rahman Sahib (1898-1945). Trying to sketch the public and private life of this gentle leader between the period of 1921 to 1945, in the back drops of Khilafat movement, Salt Satyagraha and K P C C convevntions, the film fails to provide justice to him either as a romantic husband who lives in the memories of his late wife or in presenting him with the right revolutionary and heroic attributes.
The film opens with an anticipatory bail stating that it is not an exact replication of history, which gives the director ample scope to work on the fictional element. The narratives opens with the professor Dr. Vimal Menon (Sharath Kumar) asking his students to go for a project which will help them dig out the unseen facets of the life of the revolutionary, about whom all the famous poets of the times has written about. The frames of the luxurious classrooms with laptop fielded students suddenly jumps to the toned frames of Khilafat movement at Ottappalam where Muhammad Abdulrahiman emerges as the leader and asks his mates to maintain harmony and not to act upon poor violent instincts against the pitiless British empire. Also shown in the adjacent frames are his undying love for his wife, Kunhi Beevathu(Raima Sen) who while pregnant goes for a premature death due to attack of small pox. Sahib is shown to carry one her saris in his luggage as her ever-haunting memory and refuses to remarry. Sahib who runs a news paper called `Al Ameen' to fight against the British, manages to keep it floating for years but gradually ran into heavy losses.
The movie also deals with his attempts in elections and his secular stance which had criticisms even from his own party men. The movie fails to unearth the mystery surrounding the death of the great leader, with suggestive shots of certain extremist groups engaging in a ploy to kill him by poisoning.
The director, who has also written the script based on the story by N P Mohammed, fails to background the proceedings to the extent that people with some sound idea about the history of Kerala can only enjoy the film. Moreover, P T deters from a cinematic presentation of many events and 'heroic' deeds of the central character, which at times just seems to be restricted to the title. The monotonous handling of a disjointed narrative is the big letdown of the movie, whose making is indeed better than many other similar biopics. Narain tries his very best to look convincing as Mohammed Abdu Rahman Sahib, though his dialogue delivery and softer voice seems a mismatch for an orator of such a stature. Raima Sen is impressive in her shorter role and is sure to be seen more in Mollywood in the days to come. The director seems to have focused more on the central character than the rest in the cast including Saikumar, Sadiq, Ashokan, and Siddhique who don't have enough screen space, though Kalabhavan Mani gets another impressive role as 'Undakakka'.
The technical side of the movie is topnotch, this time with Pattanam Rasheed's makeup, costumes and Boban's art direction giving the realistic feel to the historical. MJ Radhakrishnan's visuals are excellent and editing by Don Max structure the movie to be more pacy than what was really needed of the genre. And full marks for that 3D animation of Sahib's deer 'Bacchu' which seems to have full of life. Pt.Ramesh Narayan's songs are really good, with the Shreya song 'Kannodu..''the pick among the three -a definite entry to the year's best song awards .
'Veeraputhran' fails to cinematically resurrect the legend of Mohammad Abdu Rahman Sahib that it can hardly inspire the future generations to understand the fervour of the great leader who severely opposed partition of the country and made his followers to go the non-violent way. It also fails to create any of the emotions attached to a film that deals with such a patriotic theme. These all are sure to reflect in the commercial prospects of the movie, which may not be a 'veeraputhran' in terms of B O collections. |
