Shop Owner: Kunjananthan - SALEEM AHAMED CHATHICHU

[Perumthachan]

Opening statement: Syd Field is a famous American who conducts classes on script-writing. One of his famous theories is the ‘Three Act Structure’. In First Act, the lead character, his surroundings, time-frame and his goal are conveyed to the audience. Second Act is where he faces a problem which he over comes only to be followed by a bigger problem that devastates him sending him in the opposite way. Third Act is where he struggles. Now, when Syd introduced this theory in the 70’s, he ended up saying that, at the end of the Third Act, the lead character fights and overcomes the struggle leading to the epilogue. Later, during the 80’s he bought a small change to that. He said, at the end of the Third Act, the lead character fights and overcomes/’does not overcome’ the struggle leading to the epilogue. So, that’s two versions, one where character overcomes the situation and second where situation overcomes the character. Almost all movies are interested with the first option because obviously, everyone loves a happy ending. However, European movies and our own writers like MT & Lohithadas have chosen the second option where the character falls prey to the situation and walks off. Here, Salim Ahmed goes a step further.

Everyone knows the story and I don’t like spreading spoilers so I will stick to a brief - Kunjanandhan is running a provision shop at the village square. He has spent the major chunk of his age in the shop. He is married to the girl he loved and has two children. They live together but sleep separate. Kunjananthan knows that he has lost the ‘space’ in his marital life; now, he realizes that, in a short time, he will lose the ‘space’ where his shop stands.

Kunjananthan is a peculiar character with certain mannerisms and adamancy. Ikka has maintained the character well. Even in scenes where his dialogues do the necessary, he sees to it that he keeps hold on the character. He is not the usual hero, he is a coward, he is selfish and he is egoistic. I am not saying this is his best but this is definitely one of his best. Nyla (Chitra) performs her scenes well though there needed to be some explanations about her actions. The supporting cast has done their job nicely. Madhu Ambat has done a fantastic job. The night and rat scene were a marvel. Salim Ahmed has taken a relevant topic and written a compelling script. It is a treat to watch the film-maker stay away from traditional values and cliché items like police officers, politician, crying mother and stuff. He does not make statements just puts out the realities in front of us, asking us to make opinions. Adutha sentence aarum quote cheyaruthu. Director chathichennu njan parayaan kaaranam, nalla kidilan chiriyulla Ikka-ye full movie-il otta scene-il polum adhehamonnu chirikaan anuvadhichilla. KG George polum ennodee chathi cheythittilla. Njan ee film-ne kurichu kuttam parayuvennu vichaarichu ithu vaayichu thudangiya ellarodum, namovaagam. Why some people might not like this movie is because, Kunjananthan is no Chanthu or Joseph Alex. Kunjananthan oru pedithondan aanu. Kadayude akathu irunnum, doore peedika padiyil irunnum vedhanikkunna oru saadhaaranakaaran. Some viewers had problems with the Ikka’s character towards the climax. The movie is more of a reflection of real life than reel. I didn’t find anything wrong with it. We would have loved him to take up a knife, run up the stairs, jump over buildings, shout and stab the knife into the villain and walk away victorious. But Kunjananthan is no avatar of Valyettan or Prajapathi. He does not burst out or spew English jargons. The only hot blood in him is in sticking posters on the walls at night with messages to show his frustration to the society. Neither does he kill the rat in his shop (maybe because of love to a living creature) nor does he retaliate when ruffians play strong on him to close the shop on a hartal. Basically he is a mixed character, better said, grey character with darker shades, a negative version of Operator Madhavan. Just like any person out there, including you my reader, he is a paint-box of different emotions at different levels and different reasoning. I do agree that the second half is a bit of a drag. But there are two reasons for that. Kunjananthan gets along well only with his children and his mentor, the lawyer. There are no references about his siblings, schoolmates or relatives. He is a closed character. Such drama movies of earlier times had secondary characters walking in, in every 10 scenes and post-interval, all of their reactions are shown which takes up lots of screen-space. Here, there are no characters like that. It is Kunjananthan all the 5 reels long. If it was not for the presence of Siddique, Balachandra Menon, Salim Kumar (all with extended cameo performances), this movie would have been really tiresome. Second reason, it is thin-thread plot. Kunjananthante Kada is definitely worth a watch and such attempts are to be seen and appreciated laying aside star-worship and picking faults in the narrative. Ee cinema-ye verukkaanum mosham parayaanum chilarkku saadhichathu albhutham thanne.

[josemon17]

thanks perumthachan...

[sarathk]

thanks bhai

[sarathk]

Opening statement: Syd Field is a famous American who conducts classes on script-writing. One of his famous theories is the ‘Three Act Structure’. In First Act, the lead character, his surroundings, time-frame and his goal are conveyed to the audience. Second Act is where he faces a problem which he over comes only to be followed by a bigger problem that devastates him sending him in the opposite way. Third Act is where he struggles. Now, when Syd introduced this theory in the 70’s, he ended up saying that, at the end of the Third Act, the lead character fights and overcomes the struggle leading to the epilogue. Later, during the 80’s he bought a small change to that. He said, at the end of the Third Act, the lead character fights and overcomes/’does not overcome’ the struggle leading to the epilogue. So, that’s two versions, one where character overcomes the situation and second where situation overcomes the character. Almost all movies are interested with the first option because obviously, everyone loves a happy ending. However, European movies and our own writers like MT & Lohithadas have chosen the second option where the character falls prey to the situation and walks off. Here, Salim Ahmed goes a step further.

Everyone knows the story and I don’t like spreading spoilers so I will stick to a brief - Kunjanandhan is running a provision shop at the village square. He has spent the major chunk of his age in the shop. He is married to the girl he loved and has two children. They live together but sleep separate. Kunjananthan knows that he has lost the ‘space’ in his marital life; now, he realizes that, in a short time, he will lose the ‘space’ where his shop stands.

Kunjananthan is a peculiar character with certain mannerisms and adamancy. Ikka has maintained the character well. Even in scenes where his dialogues do the necessary, he sees to it that he keeps hold on the character. He is not the usual hero, he is a coward, he is selfish and he is egoistic. I am not saying this is his best but this is definitely one of his best. Nyla (Chitra) performs her scenes well though there needed to be some explanations about her actions. The supporting cast has done their job nicely. Madhu Ambat has done a fantastic job. The night and rat scene were a marvel. Salim Ahmed has taken a relevant topic and written a compelling script. It is a treat to watch the film-maker stay away from traditional values and cliché items like police officers, politician, crying mother and stuff. He does not make statements just puts out the realities in front of us, asking us to make opinions. Adutha sentence aarum quote cheyaruthu. Director chathichennu njan parayaan kaaranam, nalla kidilan chiriyulla Ikka-ye full movie-il otta scene-il polum adhehamonnu chirikaan anuvadhichilla. KG George polum ennodee chathi cheythittilla. Njan ee film-ne kurichu kuttam parayuvennu vichaarichu ithu vaayichu thudangiya ellarodum, namovaagam. Why some people might not like this movie is because, Kunjananthan is no Chanthu or Joseph Alex. Kunjananthan oru pedithondan aanu. Kadayude akathu irunnum, doore peedika padiyil irunnum vedhanikkunna oru saadhaaranakaaran. Some viewers had problems with the Ikka’s character towards the climax. The movie is more of a reflection of real life than reel. I didn’t find anything wrong with it. We would have loved him to take up a knife, run up the stairs, jump over buildings, shout and stab the knife into the villain and walk away victorious. But Kunjananthan is no avatar of Valyettan or Prajapathi. He does not burst out or spew English jargons. The only hot blood in him is in sticking posters on the walls at night with messages to show his frustration to the society. Neither does he kill the rat in his shop (maybe because of love to a living creature) nor does he retaliate when ruffians play strong on him to close the shop on a hartal. Basically he is a mixed character, better said, grey character with darker shades, a negative version of Operator Madhavan. Just like any person out there, including you my reader, he is a paint-box of different emotions at different levels and different reasoning. I do agree that the second half is a bit of a drag. But there are two reasons for that. Kunjananthan gets along well only with his children and his mentor, the lawyer. There are no references about his siblings, schoolmates or relatives. He is a closed character. Such drama movies of earlier times had secondary characters walking in, in every 10 scenes and post-interval, all of their reactions are shown which takes up lots of screen-space. Here, there are no characters like that. It is Kunjananthan all the 5 reels long. If it was not for the presence of Siddique, Balachandra Menon, Salim Kumar (all with extended cameo performances), this movie would have been really tiresome. Second reason, it is thin-thread plot. Kunjananthante Kada is definitely worth a watch and such attempts are to be seen and appreciated laying aside star-worship and picking faults in the narrative. Ee cinema-ye verukkaanum mosham parayaanum chilarkku saadhichathu albhutham thanne.

theater and status?????

[maryland]

thanks..
misleading title...
adutha varshavum chathi undennu Salim Ahmed Tv-il paranju..

[sankarsanadh]

thanks perumthachan

[Hail]

thanks bhai

[Hail]

thanks..
misleading title...
adutha varshavum chathi undennu Salim Ahmed Tv-il paranju..

Misleading title.. thachan banned for 99 years.. :nnem koottuo ingade koode?:

[Hail]

Ikkayenna sundarane venda salimnu karyangal bhangiyaakkaan... athrem confident aanu..

nice view

[Manoj]

Thanks bhai,kidu review. Ivide kureyennam kunjananthan nanmayude avatharamennu paranju kaliyakkunnundu,avar ithu vaayikunnathu nannayirikkum.