Thoughts on Mayaanadhi

Yes, I FINALLY watched it. After so many months of waiting. And boy, was it worth the wait! This was such a gem of a film, with two beautifully realized leads surrounded by equally wonderful supporting characters. Mayaanadhi is a romance, but it is also much more than that. It’s a story about two individuals who have had a rough past, but find solace in each other.

Mayaanadhi narrates the tale of Aparna aka Appu (Aishwarya Lekshmi) – an aspiring actress struggling for a break, and Mathews aka Maathan (Tovino Thomas). a professional racketeer. When one of his escapades goes horribly wrong, he finds himself in Kochi, hiding from the Tamil Nadu police. That is when he decides to reconcile with Appu, his junior from college who used to love him, but whom he had unwillingly cheated.

However, Appu, who is worn out by her struggles (in her professional as well as personal life) is in no mood to forgive Maathan. At the same time, she finds it increasingly hard to stay away from him. We don’t get their falling-in-love scenes or their big breakup scene, just a montage song which shows us how madly in love they were – cutting classes to be with each other, getting kicked out for making out in a cyber-cafe and so on. But still, we manage to get a sense of the sort of couple they were before things turned sour. The conversations between them flow so naturally, and as we go further into the film, we see that these two people really know each other, inside out, even the bad bits. Theirs was not a fluffy teenage romance, theirs was the real thing.

Of the two leads, Appu’s character is more complex, and hence more interesting. She is, as Baradwaj Rangan put it, ‘a weak woman who’s trying to appear strong’. We see it in the way she shrinks in front of her mother’s judgmental face when she catches her with Maathan in their house. We see it in her inability to say no to people who keep approaching her for help when she’d much rather do something else. And it especially comes across in a brilliant scene where she freaks out and calls Maathan before an audition, asking him to motivate her.

Maathan, on the other hand, is still a boy, a ‘paiyyan’ as Appu puts it. He prefers a glass of Boost over tea or coffee, He spontaneously starts playing with the waves in the beach. And he lives in the world of dreams, dreaming of a future far distanced from his past and present – a simple life with Appu by his side and a few pups. It is easy to see why Appu is so drawn to him. While everyone else keeps throttling her with their expectations, being with Maathan makes her feel unburdened, free.

One of the best things about Mayaanadhi is in the way it treats its female characters. Mayaanadhi is that rare movie in which the heroine says, “Sex is not a promise”, and is not vilified or treated as a vamp. The film also has one of the best female-bonding moments I’ve seen recently. My favorite scene was the one when Appu and two of her friends – a popular actress Sameera (a wonderful Leona Lishoy) and Darshana (Darshana) – down their sorrows with a bottle of wine and Darshana’s beautiful rendition of “Bhawra Mann”.

This brings me to the supporting characters. Every minor character has some distinguishable trait that makes them seem more like real people than characters created just to push the story forward. Like Sameera, a victim of patriarchy whose character provides an insight into the film industry. Like the cops who are on Maathan’s trail – there’s one who has to go on duty the very next morning after his wedding and another who harbors deep hatred for women after his wife left him for another man (Ilavarasu and Harish Uthaman are terrific as the cops). There are also cameos by the actress Aparna Balamurali and the director Lijo Jose Pellissery which added to the authenticity of the film industry backdrop (though it cracked me up when Pellissery, who made the wonderfully realistic and gritty Angamaly Diaries was shown as making a fantasy fairy-tale film).

The star of Mayaanadhi is undoubtedly Aishwarya Lekshmi. She didn’t make much of an impression on me in her first film – Njandukalude Naattil Oridavela – but that was probably because she barely had anything to work with. But as Appu, she shines, giving a beautifully subtle performance without hitting a false note. And Tovino Thomas is irresistible as Maathan. His dogged pursuit of Appu warms the cockles of your heart, and he breaks your heart with his innocence and optimism even when there is no sign of hope in the distant horizon. The two also share a crackling chemistry. One of the most well-performed scenes in the film comes immediately after the “Sex is not a promise’ line. Maathan ignorantly calls her a prostitute, and immediately regrets it. The two actors nailed this scene with their expressions.

Mayaanadhi has to be Aashiq Abu’s most beautifully directed film till date. Despite the languid pace of the film, I was fully immersed in the tale of the characters. The writers – Shyam Pushkaran and Dileesh Nair – also deserve credit. The cinematography by Jayesh Mohan is exquisite. And the music by Rex Vijayan also adds to the mood of the film.

Mayaanadhi is an achingly beautiful film, one of the best romances I have come across – not just in Malayalam but in general. Maathan and Appu have carved a place in my heart, and I’m sure that their story will stay with me for a long, long time.