Calendar Malayalam Movie
Mahesh, who has long been associated with Malayalam Cinema as an actor, succeeds in making a good impression with the way he begins his maiden directorial venture, 'Calendar'. As the titles appear on the screen, we hear in the background the evocative tune of "Maadaprave vaa...", the evergreen song composed by Salil Choudhary. It gives us a nostalgic feeling.
But alas, the ambience that it creates ends with the titles and is not carried forward into the film. 'Calendar' seems to have come from a mind that wants to say something but is confused as to how to go about it. The question is whose mind it is. Perhaps it's Mahesh the director who's confused or perhaps it's the scenarist Babu Janardhanan. Or maybe both are confused!
'Calendar' tells the story of the strong bonding between a mother and her daughter. Thankam George (Zarina Wahab), a college professor was widowed at a very young age. But she didn't agree to re-marriage and lived for her daughter Kochurani (Navya Nair) is now a college student. Both Thankam and Kochurani can't remain separated.
Kochurani is in love with Sojappan (Prithviraj), who is a constant visitor to their house. But things turn sour when Thankam learns that Sojappan and Kochurani are in love. She objects to their marriage. She can't even think of living alone, without her daughter. Thankam and Kochurani shift over to another place. And then comes in Dr. Roy Chacko (Mukesh).
Roy's mother Annamma (Mallika Sukumaran) wants Roy to get married as soon as possible. She has been asking Manjooran (Jagathy Sreekumar), in whose hospital Roy works (and who is also related to Thankam), to find him a suitable bride. It's at this juncture that Thankam and Kochurani come there. Manjooran decides to try to get Roy married to Kochurani. The story goes on from there and reaches a climax.
Performance-wise there's not much to say. Navya on the whole is OK as Kochurani. She performs remarkably in some of the scenes, especially towards the end. It's good to see Zarina Wahab back in Malayalam. She does justice to the role of Thankam. Prithviraj tries our patience as Sojappan, a character that's rather unimpressive. To the actor's benefit it must be said that it's not entirely his fault, because there seems to be something terribly wrong in the way the character is etched. Mukesh is his usual self as Roy, while Jagathy, Mallika etc are comfortable in their roles.
There's nothing much to be said about the technical aspects of the film. The music and the songs on the whole are unimpressive. Only one song, "Gandharaajan poo..." has come off passably well.
Both the script and the direction have gone wrong in 'Calendar'. The film seems like a compilation of incongruous parts. Babu Janardhanan, who has written excellent script for films like 'Thalappavu', 'Vasthavam', 'Achchanurangatha Veedu' etc, seems to have lost his moorings and gone adrift with 'Calendar'. You've of course seen this happen with him earlier too. Remember 'Heartbeats'? Coincidentally, there too he had created a character named Thankam George (played by Simran) and things had gone totally off the tracks there as well. Mahesh the director too has to take the blame for the film's failure.
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