THE EVERLASTING “BASHEER AND NARAYANI” ROMANCE

The Basheer and Narayani classic romance is very popular among the Malayali audience. The idea of romance across a prison wall was of course fresh to Malayalees at that time.

Thanks to Vaikom Muhammed Basheer, the most beloved writer in Malayalam.

The 1990 film “Mathilukal” (The Walls) by Adoor Gopalakrishnan is an adaptation of the novel of the same name (1965) written by Vaikom Muhammed Basheer. The classic Mammotty starrer movie is the recipient of several accolades, including four national awards.

The protagonist is none other than Basheer. He is imprisoned for two and a half years for the crime of writing against the British government. A charming and popular Basheer easily befriends the jail mates and even some jail officials. He was leading a happy life until all of his friends were released one after another. The loneliness made him crave for freedom. This is the point at which he meets Narayani, to be precise Narayani’s sound. They become close after each passing day. They exchanged their heart across “the wall” which is one important element in the movie. The movie ends with Basheer being released from the prison unexpectedly.

Neither Basheer nor Narayani thought that the wall between them will be a permanent one. At that point Basheer may have doubted whether he needed the freedom he actually craved for.

Just see how people’s preferences changes over the time!

We never see Narayani in the movie. Only thing that we know about her is the voice. Maybe that gave us the freedom to imagine her as we like. That was a brilliant move from the creators. The actress which gave voice to Narayani was Malayali’s own K.P.A.C Lalitha , who recently bid farewell to us.

Recently, a shortfilm titled “Ente Narayanikku” directed by Varsha Vasudev was released, which is an adaptation of Mathilukal”, starring Aditi Ravi (as Narayani) and voice acted by Unni Mukundhan (as Basheer). It can’t be called as a true adaptation, since only the idea of the wall is inspired from the movie. Story is also different, but whether it is past or present or future, the very unfortunate Basheer’s and Narayani’s fate remains unchanged.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

SHUTTER ISLAND (2010)- WHO IS CHUCK?

What did you feel after watching “Shutter Island? I was in awe because; I never expected such a climax. Never ever did I think that Teddy wasn’t a cop. For sure, I thought that he was a little eccentric, but being insane is a whole different thing.   So…… I decided to watch it once again. Believe me ! This time literally every scene proved that he is insane. I just couldn’t unsee it. And also I would like to appreciate the underrated performance of Mark Ruffallo as Dr. Sheehan aka Chuck. He was exceptional. On the first watch we feel that Dicaprio overshadowed him. No offense to Dicaprio, please dare to watch the movie once again, you will be amazed. Ruffallo is literally flawless in his portrayal of Dr. Sheehan aka Chuck. You could literally read the story from his expressions. He just confirms all your doubts from the first watch. In the first watch he is just an assistant, who is little bit unsure about the island residents. Also he doesn’t seem to be disturbed as much as ...
Read more

IS DARSHANA- ARUN LOVE PLOT IN "HRIDAYAM" UNCONVINCING?

      At least some of us would have had this thought.  Why didn’t Arun go back to Darshana after the patch-up? Maybe it was a pure infatuation based romance, although it is not completely true.   We’ll come back at it later…   Teenage romance is all about following your own “hridayam”. Darshana and Arun were also mere players in the game of hearts. Both Arun and Darshana were passionate about each other. Fate separated them. Why couldn’t they rejoin?   May be… Arun was the one who was deeply affected. He transformed from a cute innocent boy to a spoiled toxic brat all because of this “Darshana incident”. Once changed, one cannot return to the exact initial state.     In contrast, Darshana stayed the same except the fact that she was still furious about Arun. The incident didn’t have a huge impact on her character framework.   Obviously, different people pick up incidents differently.   Arun started out as a passionless yout...
Read more

SOME UNCONVENTIONAL HEROINES IN MOLLYWOOD

  When coming to heroines, Mollywood certainly always has had particular standards. Starting from beautiful eyes to long hair touching the lower back, some things were thought to be mandatory until recently. Even fair skin was there in the list of so called unwritten stereotypes, otherwise called as “Malayali thanima”. Kavya Madhavan and Shobhana to name a few, were always been considered as an ideal Malayali woman.  New generation revolution in Malayalam cinema visibly changed every aspect of the industry. Now Mollywood became more of a freestyle industry. Thanks to the youth ! They began accepting diverse genres and thus became a push to new creative and innovative filmmakers.  An evolution like this was pivotal in breaking at least some of the heroine stereotypes. Without question, some unconventional heroines have managed to make a space in the mind of Malayali audiences within the span of past few years. Particularly, the cementation of boldness and self-respect...
Read more