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| film Paithrukam |
No matter
what, there is no separating rain from a Malayali. It is such an integral
part of the soul and body of Kerala that everyone here tend to relate it to memories
from all possible aspects of life, be it love, passion, nostalgia, melancholy,
happiness, ecstasy, and the list just goes on. Rain is one of the most widely
used elements in Malayalam films, and our rich cinematic history has a lot of
such films to boast about. Songs like “Pranayamani
thooval viriyum…” from Azhagiya Ravanan
and “Neelakuyile chollu…” from Adwaitham brings back all that raging
glands to action. It has made dramatic entries in scenes of great magnitude
like the ones in Devasuram, Kireedam and Kannezhuthi Pottum Thottu. There are
also some films where it plays a much more important and extensive role in
setting the mood and as a narrative tool. Following is a list of such films that
effectively uses rain in all its glory.
10. Beautiful 2011
Set during a rainy season in
Kerala, Beautiful, one of the less
self-indulgent scripts by Anoop Menon, tells a friendship story using rain as a
mood setter. Here rain is especially used as a leitmotif to the desire the new
home-nurse evokes in the two men although the young girl enters only halfway
into the story. Various examples from old films that connect rain to love and
passion are made here frequently. Even amidst the overbearing twang of sexual
innuendos in the dialogues that undoubtedly makes the world in Beautiful look a bit depraved, rain
salvages that remaining grace with the strong emotions it inspires through the hot
nurse, so much so that the first thing what the sheer mention of the film afterwards
brings to mind is the pleasant shower with the rain-soaked girl.
9. Paithrukam 1993
Rain is equaled to faith in
this often-overlooked gem from director Jayaraj. The movie that portrays the
tug between tradition and modernity summons this wonderfully buoyant element to
call a truce in the climax. Suresh Gopi features as the radical son of the Namboothiri priest, played by Narendra
Parasad, who publicly ridicules and challenges his father’s faith pitting
scriptures against science. In the end when the Athirathra Yaga the priest
conducts to summon rain turns effective, his son remains corrected and
undergoes a transformation that the former doesn’t wait to see, ending his life
in a tragic self-immolation scene. The rain that causes the wind of change in
the protagonist’s mind comes across as a very powerful and effective.
8. Perumazhakalam 2004
Manic rain is the rule in
this distressing journey of a Muslim girl to save her husband. Agonizing
torrents of rain that work as a constant hindrance to her purpose is also suggestive
of the immense mental anguish she is in. Meanwhile on the other end, a newly
widowed young Hindu girl is grieving her husband’s death and the rain there corresponds
to her grief. The two meet in this hostile climate where one has to forgive the
other’s husband forgetting his accidental involvement in the death of her own
husband. Every step is a struggle in the unforgiving downpour where one’s
prayers and the other’s quandary wade through muddy slush and rivers of storm
water. This is one place where rain was effectively illustrated in its furious
and ill disposed form to complement the premise.
7. Mazha 2000
When Lenin Rajendran adapted
Madavikutty’s Nashtapetta Neelambari into
a movie, he brilliantly tapped the music inherent in rain complementing the
heartfelt journey of the protagonist Bhadra’s growth from the frivolities of a
clueless teenager to the tolerance of a grown woman. Rain is used here to
illustrate the love and loss of her life through its varied moods from when she
is a student of music, to the subsequent heartbreak, the dullness of life and
the eventual disillusionment. Nostalgia is another easy analogy that is made
here effectively with the use of rain that also helps to heighten the substance
of music in the narrative just like it does to her life.
6. Vaishali 1988
In Bharathan’s mythological drama
the status enjoyed by rain is profound by its sheer absence. Adapted from a
subplot in the epic Ramayana, Vaishali is the story of the eponymous Devadasi who is sent by the king to the
jungle in order to lure out a sage who, using his divine influence, is capable
of bringing rain to his parched land. As her homeland eagerly waits for the
magic to avert the drought, she accomplishes the feet and brings home the
ascetic who in the end charms the rain out of the gods. The climactic Dum dum dum dum dundubi nadam where rain
whips down on an ecstatic mob is hair raising all through the jubilations that
lead to chaos and the eventual stampede. Rain in Vaishali is thematically one of the strongest on the list.
5. Maheshinte Prathikaram 2016
Even though the most decisive
moment in the plot in Dileesh Pothen’s comedy-drama is the public humiliation
scene, it is an altogether different one that gains significance considering
the evolution of the titular character which happens to be the heartbreak that
figures midway through in the story that at first devastates Mahesh but turns
out to be the point where he begins to transform. So clearly there is a before
and after centered on the break-up, which is portrayed here beautifully using
rain. The first half depicting his first love is swathed in rain, and the other
half where he finds his new and more suitable love unravels immediately after
the rain stops. The use of rain against the heartbroken Mahesh’s lamentations
following his sweetheart’s wedding is perfect and gives a closure to the whole
affair.
4. Yavanika 1982
This brilliant murder
mystery begins on the morning following a rainy night- the significance of
which we realize only with the final twist- and it is evident from the wet
grounds, the muddy puddles, the drenched buildings and the dripping trees. At
the time we are not aware that one of the most pivotal scenes in the film is
already over, timeline-wise. It’s for the setting of this central ‘murder scene’,
which plays out in flashback later in the climax, that rain is used as an
overwhelming force of nature. The grisly struggle and the supposedly gory ‘end’
of the debased percussionist in the thrashing rain impart the scene all the
horror it warrants. Like an unidentified murderer among the familiar cast of characters,
rain lurks in the visual narrative of the scenes following the murder although
one cares to notice it only in a second viewing.
3. Shantham 2001
In addition to rain in its
dynamic form, the monsoon sets the air to this glum drama that denounces
violence, using slippery grounds, cloudy skies, and brooks of rainwater that
slits the muddy walkways into fragments. Unlike the angry downpour in Perumazhakalam, the rain here is rather
restrained and has more of a purifying impact, like the peace it advocates and
the redemption it seeks. Persistent drizzle is everywhere like the needles of
guilt eating away the insides of one of the key characters. It also parallels
the inner turmoil of a mother who is worried about a son whose future is
indefinite. There are also times it comes down weeping for the dead. Brilliant
cinematography absorbed this wonderful element in all of these avatars.
2. Thoovanathumbikal 1987
Padmarajan’s eternal love
story uses rain as an explicit metaphor for love in the life of the protagonist
caught between the affection of two women. It rains the very first time he
writes the letter to the unknown face in a very cult scene. It rains again
after they consummate love. It rains again and again, however varying in force,
till it finally lashes down when he receives her last letter. Even though it is
his obsessive passion for the complex escort character that is primarily reflected
through rain, his life events are adjacently placed to the element drawing
stimulating parallels. Thoovanathumbikal
is one of the earliest examples where rain was associated with love and passion
in Malayalam films.
1. Piravi 1989
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