Mohanlal Movie 'Devasuram': Critique

"Ellam Onna Kalanhi Thellinya Irikyunnu..." Who can forget such soul-stirring dialogues delivered by Mallasery Neelakandan(Mohanlal). Behold, for this is one of the most intense and powerhouse performances given by Mohanlal. But giving the most honourable awards for this performance could have meant a tacit pat-on-the-back for the acts of the protagonist. The solution put forth perhaps would have been the seed that gave birth to 'Ravanaprabhu'.
The movie begins with a 'pooram' being disrupted by friends of Mallasery Neelakandan(MN). Watch on right hand, betel leaf in mouth, the character is introduced genuinely enjoying the music doled out by the group that was scheduled to play at the 'pooram'. The basis is a feud between the Mangalacheri and Mundaikal families.Also a sign of the fact that both families are powerful.
MN's father was held by all in high regard. They say that the beautiful voice is all that is alike between MN and his father. Drinking and gambling away the family fortunes is his common pastime. His mother had already left for her brother's place on hearing he was in an illicit relationship. Though he had ended the relation following this incident, his ego did not permit him to go and persuade her to come home.
Though all of his actions prove otherwise, the family accountant, Warrier(Innocent) sticks to him, among other reasons due to the fact that he knows that this is just a golden heart led astray.
Prompted by his friends, MN hires a goon to beat up an elderly member of the other family. It results instead in the old man being killed. His nephew swears revenge on MN.
This was just the beginning of the slide. His friends had been victim to the ire of a village girl(Revathy), a promising dancer in the making. To get even with her, MN dupes her father into believing that her 'aarengatum' would be held at the new temple construction. The farce is revealed only on the night of the event. As her father had already accepted(and spent) the money, the girl is forced to dance in front of the drunken demon. At the end, she pledges in his presence that she'd never wear her 'paadasaram' again. MN later feels deeply regretful.
Meanwhile, the goon demands that a huge sum be paid to his family if he is to keep shut. MN is left with no option but to sell a coveted property at a throwaway price; the salt on the wound being that he's forced to sell it to the same Gulf-returned whose earlier( and better) offer he'd turned down as his father had been like servant to the family.
The girl's family is in the meantime going through hard times and are now without a home. MN's sincere apology is accepted and the family moves to his home. Constantly egged by Warrier, MN shows willingness to turn over to a new leaf; but God leaves the hardest tests to such moments...
As if walking through the ridicule of his uncles to take back his ill mother is not enough, he receives a shock when she informs him that his father is not the one who he is known as...they both are only the benefactors of the generosity of the great man. Somehow graplling with the shock, he comes back again to take his mother home, only to find that she's passed away.
MN is shattered, crushed would perhaps be more apt.He feels cheated, humiliated and hates himself, and more than anything is filled with deep pain. The song 'Sooryakireedam' is apt, but the real beauty is Mohanlal's body language in the song; he conveys the pangs the character is faced more beautifully than the song itself.
The girl is witness to all this. Time passes and the family moves out. The dance master of the girl once comes to make MN realize what a sin he'd committed by leading her to such a grave decision. MN goes with Warrier to apologise and persuade her to change her decision. The fiercely self-respecting girl, in a fit of rage, proclaims that she would resume dancing only after MN's death.
The incident only increases the regard MN has for the girl. As if like a curse put into effect, there is a fatal attack on the two that very night. This event is life-changing. The girl feels remorseful and prays for his life pleading she'd never really meant him harm. MN's life is saved, he is alive...YES. But MN is now like a vegetable. Badly injured with one side of the body crippled, he tells Warrier amidst tears "Haven't I always regarded you as my own father? Will get just one thing for me? A handful of poison?" in a touching scene.
But LIFE is BEAUTIFUL; it mercilessly punishes, but also bountifully loves, all a result of our own Karmas. Warrier is determined to get MN to his feet and puts him under Ayurvedic treatment. The girl, lending a deaf ear to the jeers of all the world(including her father), comes over to take care the convalescing MN. The villain once comes over to laugh at the wounded lion. This only strengthens MN's will and very soon he is able to walk, though unable to freely use one hand.His friends, who initially after the attack had kept away, now rejoin him. But what satisfies MN most is that the girl agrees to resume dancing. And the greatest blessing is that the two begin a love relationship.
The climax is predictable. MN saves the kidnapped girl from the villain. But outrageous is that he cuts off one hand of the villain. A truly reformed MN would have forgiven. And more importantly, the director should have realized that characters like MN, performed so convincingly by a superstar like Mohanlal, can influence entire generations.
-- Published in http://www.mohanlalonline.com/movie-info.asp?dxv=198 7/28/2003 10:28:04 AM