Article Written By EIH Researcher & Writer
Aswathy Mony
Other than everything, the one mandatory nostalgic aspect for every Malayalee is the rain and monsoon season that evokes within him a downpour of emotions and a multitude of moods rains bring, be it happiness, romance, melancholy, nostalgia, and love. Malayalam films too have made rains an integral part of which to evoke the magic of emotions in the viewers by picturing the different avatars of rain. Not just the monsoon season, the early downpours which accompany the summer showers as a prelude to the monsoons have also played their roles in Malayalam movies.
One of the most common Malayalam movies which incorporate the mood of the monsoon rains of Kerala is Mazha(2000). Director Lenin Rajendran who adapted Madhavikutty’s Nashtapetta Neelambari in the movie tries to bring out the connection between rain, love, and music by side-lining the storyline with the female protagonist who falls in love with her music teacher. The rain-drenched movie songs too reflect the music inherent in the rain and the affection of love which follows. Another Malayalam movie where rain plays its role is the Kamal-directed Perumazhakkalam(2004). The storyline is kept in such a way that rain itself becomes the villain of the story when the heavy downpours rule the journey of a Muslim girl Raziya who set out to save her husband. Here rains become the hindrance in her path to find out her love. On her journey, she meets the widowed Hindu girl who mourns the death of her husband. Rain here is illustrated with a furious face which symbolizes the tears and prayers of one, which for the other is agony, grief, and loss. The movie Beautiful directed by V K Prakash depicts rain as imagery of love, lust, and a sensual allure. It also marks the not-so-pure and forged friendship between Stephen (Jayasurya) and John (Anoop Menon). Ennu Ninte Moideen (2015) unwinds rain as a symbol of the eternal love that exists between the female protagonist Kanjanamala(Parvathy Thiruvoth) and male protagonist Moideen (Prithviraj). Here rain is depicted in every phase of the love story between Moideen and Kanjanamala when rain makes its appearance as they fall in love, throughout the long years of grievance of waiting and the manifestation of rain as agony and loss when the furiousness of rain takes Moideen away from her. Padmarajan’s Thoovanathumbikal(1987) depicts rain as a synonym for beauty and unattainable desire whenever the female character Clara enters onscreen accompanied by rain. The strategic use of rain onscreen is a metaphor for love for the male protagonist who falls into the dilemma between the affection for two women. Rain is depicted in varying forces from the very first time of budding of love till the loss of it. Rain sets a melancholy tone in the story of an aged father’s quest for his lost son in Shaji N Karunan’s Piravi. Here rain accompanied by thunder and lightning depicts the lonely battle the family fights for the lost son. The greenery and the aesthetic monsoon atmosphere that accompanies monsoon too are depicted well in the cinematography of Sunny Joseph.
Other than the depiction of love, loneliness, passion, and melancholy, rain has played its role in the role in murder mystery in Yavanika where unwinding mysteries of the murder and the horror it evokes. Bharathan’s Vaishali is another mythological drama that evokes magic at the same time the destruction and the chaos of rain it creates is another movie where rain plays its profound character. The song Dum dum dum dum dundubi nadam is the song of the drama which depicts the thematic representation of the relevance of rain the story evokes. Rain comes as an element of peace, purification, and redemption in the different avatars as in the case of Shantham(2001). Other than these, there are many other movies where rain plays its undebatable role as a metaphor to express human feelings and emotions.
REFERENCES
- indianexpress.com
