Cashing in on Nostalgia: Padmarajan and ‘The New Generation’

Cashing in on Nostalgia: Padmarajan and ‘The New Generation’

Nandini Raja

The late P. Padmarajan is undoubtedly the most celebrated writer-director in Malayalam film Industry. Even though most of the Padmarajan’s movies were not huge commercial successes, he has a huge fan following, especially among old and new filmmakers alike. It is interesting to note that some of ‘the new generation’ film makers have created blockbusters celebrating his films, dialogues and characters. Many aspects of these films are inspired from movies like ‘Thoovanathumbikal’ and ‘Namukku Paarkkan Munthirithoppukal’, which have already become clichéd. So the question arises, can ‘creative freedom’ or ‘tribute to legend’ always be cited as the reason behind such clichéd representations? Or are these filmmakers capitalising on the ‘legendary’ status of Padmarajan to sell their own ware?

How a member of the audience interprets or gets affected by a film is very personal and subjective. In that sense we cannot really say that somebody has ‘misread’ a work of art. But when one looks at the way some of the film makers have understood and represented a film and its premise, it comes across as very conservative. In such contexts we feel cheated and we say that the film maker has ‘misread’ the character. Because Padmarajan’s body of work as a film maker is a study in cinema itself.

One glaring example of that misuse is the bringing back of Thangal, the character played by Babu Namboothiri, which was a bold attempt by Padmarajan. Padmarajan’s portrayal of Thangal, a person who supplies prostitutes, is so poignant that it could open a new way of making sense of the character. Even though we are not given much details about Thangal, we are made to believe that he has heart wrenching backstory and he is not the usual pimp that is portrayed in mainstream Malayalam movies. But, Thangal reappeared in a recent film as a mere pimp, somebody who does not have the emotional depth that was visible in ‘Thoovanathumbikal’. Few old dialogues and similar background music is not enough to re-create the character, even if you call it ‘tribute’. To add, what does these so called progressive films try to say – idea of One Woman Man? They conveniently forget Jayakrishnan (Mohanlal) was in love with both Clara (Sumalatha) and Radha (Parvathy) in ‘Thoovanathumbikal’.

Any Malayalam film lover would cherish the experience of watching ‘Thoovanathumbikal’. Many interpretation of the movie has put ‘rain’ as an important character in the movie. Mohanlal, the lead actor of the movie, has mentioned about the same in his memoir of Padmarajan - "Rithumarmarangal". But does the portrayal of the heroine, drenched in rain and sexy, with the famous theme music of the movie playing in background, make the concept of love at first sight "Beautiful"?

Considering this case, one has to say that certain films and characters should be left alone. Remaking or re-creating them spoils the beauty. Because the context in which those films were made cannot be recreated.  Getting influenced/inspired, from genius is not similar to re-creating what they did. Recreating Padmarajan is close to impossible – or almost.