Review: ഉദകപ്പോള | Udakappola

ഉദകപ്പോള | Udakappola by P. Padmarajan
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

There are a few multi-talented personalities in the long, storied history of Indian arts and literature. One who has made their mark on several fields to varying acclaim, is the celebrated and adored versatile Indian auteur Satyajit Ray. A prodigious artist, who has made his mark not only in films, but writing and other fields, venturing into the then niche genres such as sci-fi with an Indian sensibility, as early as the 1960s.

An artist who worked along the same path as Ray, in the southern regional sphere, is the often underrated, but now adored Malayalam filmmaker P. Padmarajan; or പപ്പേട്ടൻ as those in the state adoringly called him. Someone who’s thoughts, visions and cinematic sensibilities, often traveled ahead of his times.

Which might be a major reason why, during his own lifetime, he gained little recognition for his work. The people he worked with, as well as like minded colleagues, such as Bharathan & K.G. George, filmmakers from the same feathers, recognized his kindred spirit. But, mainstream moviegoers took longer, in fact after his untimely demise, to give him the adulations he so much deserved. In his time, they were widely panned and even derided.

Perhaps one of Padmarajan’s most recognizable, as well as widely appreciated works has got to be the 1987 character driven romantic drama, തൂവാനതുമ്പികൾ (Thoovanathumbikal); starring Mohanlal, Sumalatha & Parvati.

Much like his other works, the movie was not received well on release; but today, is considered one of the most influential works to have come out of the language. The story was in part, adapted from a novel Padmarajan had written, this one, which itself was a semi autobiographical creation, based on the lives of certain acquaintances he made in real life.

When comparing the novel with the adapted screenplay, the differences are plenty, both in terms of content and themes.

For one, the movie, perhaps catering to mainstream sensibilities, has replaced the prevalent theme of lust and excess on display in the page, to one of love and desire. It deals with the emotional yet earnest and open romantic entanglement between three individuals. As well as how, their relationship grows and matures, to sometimes letting go of the ones you love, so as to move on and grow as a person. It explores something almost alien in movies at the time, and perhaps not seen in many mainstream movies nowadays; individuals communicating with others their feelings and insecurities, and those emotions being accepted and explored in a civilized and empathetic manner. A civilized exploration of love, heartbreak and desires, would be as good a tagline to the cinematic adaptation. A journey which culminates in a cathartic conclusion.

The tone of the novel however, is decidedly grayer, and strays far from this kind of romanticization. Instead it shows the bleak realities of life, with all of its gritty, grime filled emotional excess. Exploring mainly the disjoined snippets of life, of those individuals who exist as outliers in society. The purveyors of nightly pleasures, intoxication, lust and depravity.

United perhaps by their commonalities in hedonistic tendencies; both with the means, as well as those near abject poverty, all indulge in their self-destructive excesses, all passengers in a train rushing towards the inevitable chasm.

Then there are those who have already completed their bout with life, having lost more than what they gained. Now, in the last chapter of their story, at the closing of a lifetime of broken dreams and aspirations, wait with nothing more to look forward to, except for that one final blissful day, when they close their eyes, never to open again.

It is often said that great works touch life often. In that sense, ഉദകപ്പോള is a grime filled kaleidoscope, to those lives we often turn our gazes away from.

After finishing the book (with no definite satisfactory wrap up to the storylines), you feel the same way, as after a weary day of toil, bearing the weight of the world. Desperate for a hot bath to wash away all the exhaustion build up, to have it just slough off your soul.

Yet, you understand this was necessary. To experience life, to become a person with better empathy for life, to humanity and the lives all around us. To realize sometimes that, life is not all about, boy meets girl, and then happily ever after.


View all my reviews