THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: If it had been screened at a time when the entire state was up in arms to ban endosulfan, the movie ‘Pakarnnattam,’ would have had a better impact on the viewers than it made at the film festival in Thiruvananthapuram. Though the mixing of contemporary politics in Malabar, the love, the waiting and the despair overshadowed the director’s effort to highlight the endosulfan issue, the film can be adored for its simplicity in narration.
‘Pakarnnattam,’ directed by Jayaraj, with Jayaram and Sabitha Jayaraj in the lead role, was the first movie that was screened at the 16th International Film Festival of Kerala (IFFK) under the category ‘Malayalam Cinema Today.’ Though shot with a 5D Mark camera and a shoestring budget, the film balances well between the realistic approach of an art house production and the totality of a commercial venture.
For instance, in the shot in which Sudhi (Vijay) gets killed, the director has opted for a touch-me-not plant, which gets faded when the blood splashes into it. Combined with the brilliant sound mixing by Tapas Nayik, background score by Kailas Menon and cuts by Sobin K Soman, the shot is enough to admire Jayaraj’s ability. The movie is not an extraordinary one, but surely has given a good start to the Malayalam cinema section at the IFFK. It will help the malayalam cinema marketing wing - a special unit in the festival to promote our films and open an international window for them - give a right impression to the movie world that still there are some attempts being made in our language to maintain a status quo between arthouse productions and mainstream films.