Raman Malayalam Movie
There is so much happening in the world out there, and Raman does have a say on pretty much all of those. 'A Travelogue of Invasion' as it self-proclaims, the film traverses assorted themes and milieu without ever being specific or explicit.
In essence, Raman is yet another anti-war film that underlines the agony, horror, and human costs of armed conflict. It's predominant focus is on the American invasion of Iraq that it vehemently sees as one of the most ghastly acts of terror in the history of mankind.
There is plenty of video footage through which it tries to get its message across. And there's Diya (Avantika Agarker) who's a journo documenting the atrocities of the aftermath. She seems a woman who has been torn apart emotionally, who has emerged out of a messy marriage, desperately trying to string together the rest of the beads of her life. Travelling across to Iraq from India, she's captured by the American army and her crew members are shot dead.
Somewhere far away in some obscure village down in Kerala, Raman (Anoop Chandran who comes up with a riveting performance), a mute man, leads a peaceful existence with a bunch of kids much younger in age, who are oblivious of the disasters that rock the world around them. Before long, this serene hamlet is shaken up all over with alien assaults and the natives find themselves branded as trespassers.
The naked symbol of protest against invasions that have been ripping the world apart is quite pertinent. The climactic sequence that suggests a rising upheaval against the forces of suppression has been brilliantly captured on screen.
However, Raman is a film that attempts to do too many things at once without ever focusing on any one specific point. There is a lot of fussing over several issues and yet ultimately they deliver nothing exactly spectacular. There are plenty of references to almost everything under the sun, ranging from the Guantanamo Bay detention camp to the terribly toxic Endosulfan; from the ADB loan to the casualties of the Vietnam war.
As it shifts from one focal point to another, a sense of incoherence slowly builds up that turns out to be absolutely distracting. An extremely crowded collage of multifaceted events that's difficult to be disentangled, Raman inadvertently blows up its chances to communicate with its audience.
Cinematically, the film sports a take it or leave it feel, with statements hurled on your face left, right and center. There are limited opportunities for discussion and even lesser for debate.
The film is quite ambitious and neatly photographed though it does not match up to its aspirations. There's a striving for gutsy realism as well, that works intermittently. But sadly the woe and horror of it all never really gets across the screen.
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