Melvilasam – the search for truth

It’s not always that Malayalam films venture outside the stereotypic storylines. But the film ‘Melvilasam’ (Address) boldly does that. And the result is a brilliantly scripted, exceptionally executed, wonderfully acted film which will stay in my mind for precisely the above mentioned reasons.

The story of a court martial set inside an army court (naturally) which never ventures outside it – except through dialogues. No female actresses, no flashy dresses, no scenic locations, no songs and no flashback scenes which usually comes with such a story line. The camera stays inside the courtroom for the whole one and half hours of the film during which the story takes place. My mind stayed in too.

There is an inherent risk with such a story line. The film has to depend on its screenplay, direction and acting of the protagonists to capture the attention of the audience and keep it till the end of the film. ‘Melvilasam’ does that with ease. The script by Soorya Krishnamoorthy, which is the adaptation of his own play of the same name, is the real star of this film.

Sawar Ramachandran (Parthipan) shot two of his superior officers – killing one, and injuring another while on guard duty one night. The films follows his court martial proceedings, with Colonal Puri (Nizhalgal Ravi) as the government counsel and Capt. Vikas Roy (Suresh Gopi) as the Defense counsel. While Colonel Suraj Singh (Thalaivasal Vijay) is the strict and upright presiding officer, Dr. Gupta (Asokan) and Captain B D Kapoor (Krishnakumar) are the witnesses to the event. The story moves along the attempts of Capt. Vikas Roy to find out the events that prompted the simple, disciplined, down-to-earth, caring and law abiding individual Ramachandran to commit such a crime. And the truth unfolds slowly, from the stories of different witnesses and finally, from Ramachandran.

The story moves without glitches, at the right speed, slowly unfolding the various facets of Sawar Ramachandran who is the criminal, and those who accuse him, those who have already judged him, those who are sympathetic towards him, those who wants him to be hanged, those who are indifferent towards him and finally those who love him.The performances by Suresh Gopi and Thlaivasal Vijay are superb while Parthiban steals the heart with subtle yet strong performance. Asokan and Krishnakumar do justice to their roles. And together, it becomes one of the few good Malayalam movies which I've seen in a couple of years.

The first time director can be excused for the minor shortcomings. A couple of scenes could have been avoided which gives away the feeling that it has been adapted from a play. The story, based on the life in Army, may not be a commercial success in terms of viewership. And the limited release with subdued marketing doesn’t really help. At least 4 of the people whom I talked about watching the movie have not even heard about such a movie being released.

The story doesn’t raise any questions to the society. It doesn’t make any bold statements. It shows the life in army, what it does to those in power and those under them. It laments how life is not always fair to everyone. And it tells how Law, doesn’t always mean Justice.