Malayalam movie Veeram review
When Jayaraj took the herculean task to tell
Chanthu's story the major challenge before him was Vadakkan Veeragaatha, the
magnum opus of MT- Hariharan team. But still, Jayaraj took a chance and tried to
give a novel tint to the old saga. Jayaraj’s Chanthu is a cheat, as it is presented in Vadakkanpattu (folksongs in the
Malabar region which sing about the Kalari warriors). It was indeed a great
thought to compare the story of Chanthu and to Shakespeare's epic play Macbeth.
But this attempt levied huge responsibilities and a few limitations upon the director.
The use of Malabar slang is the cynosure of Veeram.
The dubbing artists did a commendable job in this regard. The costumes and
visual richness also add to the glory of the movie. Scenes of the love making,
the sight of well-built warriors who remind us of the Hollywood movie 300,
ravishing women like Kuttimaani aesthetically enrich the movie.
Despite all these strong points, Veeram still has a
lot of chinks in its armour. It gave too much focus on visual beauty, technical
perfection and costumes and make ups at the cost of presenting the core of
the characters and their transformations in a convincing way. Jayaraj clearly did
not work on the script to unleash its possibilities and to build the story and
characters with ample stuff.
Though he tried to inject Macbeth into Chanthu and
it didn't work well. Most of the performances including that of the lead actor
Kunal Kapur, who enacted Chanthu, are not up to the mark. Veeram boasts about
Kalarippayattu, Kerala's own martial art, but, fails to visualise it
effectively. Since Keralites have an evergreen classic to compare, Jayaraj
could've approached the plot with more focus. Even the BGM which was long-listed
for Oscars is not able to enliven the drama on screen.
The costumes, make up
and background and the slang in the movie are not at all synced. And it gives
the feel of a usual dubbed movie which just speaks in our tongue but tells the
story of some other places. The director might have used it intentionally to
give a varied perspective to the run off the mill ideas and prejudices of the
viewers. In that sense the movie tries to aesthetically deconstruct the
historical aspect and facts.
In short, Veeram lacks a perfect sync and focus which were vital for such a classic idea.
