Charlie- An incarnation of GOD

"He is like wind. When he hits you,you feel refreshed but you can never catch it". This is how we are introduced to the protagonist of one of the superbly made fictional dramas of  our time,Charlie directed by Martin Prakkat. In this post, i will walk you through the characters of this drama.

The story is supernatural in every sense. But it feels real. Charlie is an incarnation of god. He is the god that our parents taught us.

Charlie is a perfect example for cinema god. "Gary stu",as they generally refer to the character introduced by the writer to fulfill his wish. In Indian films we have a lot of takes on GOD like the one in 'Thiruvilayadal' . The most common way is to take human forms . Charlie is special because it  is human taking a god form. Let me explain:

1) We do not know the back story of him, which keeps us in suspense till the end as of what is the character going to do next.

2) He is not called by a name (even we know his name is Charlie). Mostly he is referred to as GENIE. 

           Thomas Docherty writes "Naming a character is an act of distinction that sets the character apart from the surrounding narrative environment,other characters and the viewers" .

Since he is not given a name, he becomes a 'force of nature' that acts as a catalyst for the story flow.

3) We do not know his backstory, but we get know about his behavior throughout the film and this makes the character three dimensional even without us knowing 'who he is'.

4) He reaches out to people in trouble (not like the marvel "superheroes") and takes them to heaven when alive on earth.  He makes their life meaningful and gains pleasure in surprising people.

5) The tone of fantasy that always surrounds him. The colour used, the music, the dialogues and his epitome acting. 

6) The unpredictability of the character and his vision of life. 

Now let us move to the charming Teresa played by parvathi menon

As bold,dreamy,charming and chaotic one can be. Her character is more of a straight line than an arc. There is no transformation. The girl of everyone's dreams. The girl who runs for finding a mystical man and ends up finding herself. The maker clearly introduces her

She makes every frame colorful which already are. Her eyes convey everything. The way she is obsessed to complete the story is amazing. There is one particular scene where she eats icecream and two men stare at her , immediately she offers them the stick she is eating which they refuse and she continues without giving a damn. Her fantasies are clearly explained in the lines of pularikalo song which is both meaningful and ear pleasing.

              "Is it dawn or dusk?,or is it reaps of golden grain?,

               On my misty flower as a tender honey drop

              As each moment becomes like a butterfly

              I woke up,life becomes musical."

Basically she is a human being who goes in search of god after being attracted by the previous actions of  god. Finally she gets to meet him and teases him with a lie and ends up being surprised as usual.

Her craziness is what gives life to her character. Blindly entering the prostitution centre, not afraid of any mysterical creatures around her in the house, instead being surprised.

My most favorite technique of pulling the audience into the film is, making them a part of the film,  give a character to put themselves at and Kani is your replica on screen. Her character arc is designed such that you can put yourselves at any point on the curve and move with the movie :)

Speaking about the other aspects, i am tired of appreciating cinematographers of the malayalam film industry. The music does the need. The flow is natural. The specialty is,it is a fantasy we can relate to, it is a dream we can live in, it is supernatural but feels natural, it is unreal but we will believe it.

Please do watch it, if you haven't watched it yet. Dulqueer salman and Parvathi menon will take you places.

PS: Thank you Kokulan for helping me with the Gary stu concept.

                                         

                                        

C/o Kancharapalam- An unconditional love story

What would be your answer,if you were asked to define love? CO Kancharapalam answers the question more precisely with utmost reality and nativity.

This is more of a poem than a movie. Beauty,beauty and beauty throughout. Not in the physical sense though. There is no one in the movie who has an appeal through physical beauty.

Love is not buying a teddy bear or a diamond necklace. Love is trusting the sex worker companion with a pair of condoms, love is taking a bottle of sugar water during a hill trek knowing the companion is suffering from diabetes, love is gifting a lyrical book when the companion badly needs it to win a competition.

The writing was so organic. We don't feel the run because,we travel along. There are many characters, but all we consume is the love they possess. Love is the both the protagonist and the antagonist. The little girl who played Sunitha is a great find.

The success of this movie lies in the fact that it keeps you smiling throughout. There is a difference between laughand smile. The emotion gets reflected into us as clear as a glass. Especially the portion in which Sundaram  searches Sunitha. We are provided  with four different love stories in a non linear manner.

The best thing about the screenplay is that we don't loose the connect. For example, the statue maker was not present during the middle forty minutes but the director doesn't fail to put his shoes into us when he is shown again. This, usually will be absent in the major movies of this category. There is a sex worker, an old couple making love, school kid falling for a girl but we don't feel awkward, not even for a moment. In fact those portions are the most beautiful ones.

There are many scenes that may create issues like the one in which stones are thrown on lord Ganesha or the one in which a Christian throws away his cross. I wish it gets promoted atleast  in this way.

My most favourite scenes are the conversation between Raju and madam after the trek,the way Gaddam proposes,the entire Sundaram  Sunitha portions and the climax.

Some may feel glitches during the later second half, but we come to know that it was intentional. I usually hate twists in movies because it cheats us. It says what we believed was not true. But this was not the case. There is a major twist but neither us nor the flow is affected, infact we don't even realize because it was "real" and I was wondering about how the creator had managed to keep the timeline away  from us.

The detailing given,the sound design ,the midnight jams, the songs,the supporting artists, the main actors and the story, everything goes hand in hand and delivers us a delicious product.

The county must celebrate this piece of art but I am,by now used to viewing movies in empty theaters because this has no devarkondas or no Pawan kalyans. I watched it along with 'six' other people in the entire theatre and everyone left the theatre with smile and tears,isn't this real "success".