It is not often that a movie is both lyrical and thought-provoking but the one I was watching last afternoon happened to fit the description perfectly. I am not sure if it is because of the changes that my way of thinking has undergone in the past few years that made me so susceptible to every nuance in the movie but I think not – even if I had watched the movie as a youngster, it would probably have left an impact.
‘Pranayam’ is a Malayalam movie that stars Anupam Kher, Jayaprada and Mohanlal. It is not a conventional movie by any standards. I would think most people would be bored by the idea of love at a mature age and possibly even embarrassed at the very thought. But the director Blessy has handled the topic with sensitivity and delicacy. Anupam Kher’s excellent acting was let down by some really awful dubbing in the voice of a man who is well known for having some of the worst dialogue-delivery capabilities in the Malayalam film industry. The last forty minutes could have done with some crisper editing but even that is just an opinion – I loved the movie and enjoyed watching it thoroughly.
The basic storyline is simple. Anupam Kher’s character Achutha Menon is a 67 year old who survived his first heart attack and stays at his son’s flat in Kochi. The affectionate son Suresh, played brilliantly by Anoop Menon, is away in Sharjah and the daughter-in-law is none too pleased about having to take care of an old man while keeping track of a teenage daughter as well as holding down a 9 to 5 job. He is therefore a bit lonely and resents his status as a burden borne most unwillingly.
As a young and dashing football player Achu (as the younger avatar of Achutha Menon is called) falls in love with Grace and they elope to get married. Having gone against both families, they find themselves alone and not carefree either. Achu sacrifices his state football team selection to help his wife during the last stages of her pregnancy and for reasons unspecified they go their separate ways when their son Suresh is two and a half years old. To make things easier on the child, Achu tells him that his mother is dead.
Grace remarries within her community the second time and learns to love Mathew with all her heart and soul. Achutha Menon meets Grace (now played by Jayaprada) unexpectedly in the lift of the building where they both stay in their children’s flats and has a second heart attack right in front of her. Grace is frantic and manages to get help to admit him in the hospital just in time. She waits till his daughter-in-law and granddaughter take over and then leaves. Back home, a wheelchair-bound Mathew (played impeccably by Mohanlal) immediately senses something amiss. His right side is paralysed due to a stroke and his words are not often intelligible. His mind however is sharp and his thoughts as clear as ever. Eventually Grace breaks down and tells him of the day’s incidents and he consoles her.
The relationship between Grace and Mathew is one of intense love and mutual dependence. He is beholden to her for everything physical. She has to feed him, bathe him and dress him. He in turn is her rock – always cheerful and possessing a world view that is so refreshing and positive that to be around him brings joy. They stay with their daughter, son-in-law and granddaughter. The son-in-law has a wandering eye and the daughter is both judgemental and smug quite unlike her parents.
Meanwhile Achutha Menon gets a new lease of life. He is grateful to God to be given the chance to see the love of his life again after more than forty years. He had never remarried after their divorce and instead spent years in different towns with his small son in a bid to escape his feelings as well as to show his ex-wife how capable he was of handling everything. When he finally realized he was merely fooling himself and returned to Kerala, he finds that Grace is already remarried. He vows not to miss the chance of reconnecting with Grace this time. He has changed and learnt a lot since their last parting. And yet his love for her had not ebbed for even a moment all those years.
Mathew is aware of his wife’s turmoil and is extremely understanding. In one scene he tells her “It is not possible for you to forget him or be indifferent to his pain – he had possessed your heart and body before me – it is only natural but ultimately all love is selfish and so is mine.” Even though he is a great lover of romance and was generous hearted, his physical incapacity and dependence on his wife had created a glimmer of insecurity as evinced by his overly physical displays of affection to Grace when he first meets Achutha Menon.
And yet after the first few moments, his attitude changes and he genuinely likes Achutha Menon. They become good friends despite the disapproval of both families. Grace’s daughter and son-in-law accuse her of running around with two men and they decide to leave. Achutha Menon’s daughter-in-law is no better. Suresh rushes back from Sharjah to be with his dad and is incensed to find that he has a living mother who he believes, abandoned him so many years ago.
The three old friends decide to go away together by themselves possibly to Achutha Menon’s native village. They have the time of their life making the trip. Mathew is ecstatic at having the chance to feel alive again. The other two revel in his joy and they all feel young and carefree right up to the moment on the beach when Mathew collapses. More scenes in the hospital follow where Mathew is shown as recovering slowly while Grace and Achutha Menon share what happened to them all those years ago. She now understood why her son hated her and refused to let her into his life. He had no idea that his father took him away without his mother’s knowledge because of his selfish need. She confesses that she remarried only because her father threatened to kill himself. She also forgives him for poisoning her son’s mind against her albeit unintentionally.
Everything goes smoothly after that and Suresh calls from the airport to beg his mother’s forgiveness and extract a promise from her that the next time he comes home, he be allowed to stay with her too. She is so full of happiness at the moment that she doesn’t hear Achutha Menon’s happy chatter and when he smilingly hugs her in celebration of that perfect moment, she gasps and collapses in his arms. The doctor pronounces her dead much to the shock of the two sick men. They turn to each other for comfort. The last scene is one where Mathew places flowers at her gravestone and Achutha Menon helps him and finally wheels him away off somewhere where one hopes the two friends have comfort and companionship for the rest of their years.
The story was not unusual but the treatment of it was simply superb. I particularly relished one scene where a distraught Grace and an unusually depressed Mathew meet Achutha Menon at the pier’s edge which is their favourite spot. They were explaining how their daughter felt they were an embarrassment and how she was afraid they would spoil her pristine reputation. He in return was telling them how his days there were numbered because his son had requested he return to the village (on his wife’s incessant nagging). He then throws one shell into the sea and sees how far it goes. He picks up a second one and throws it – to his delight, it goes much farther than the first. He turns around and asks “Tell me Grace, why you think my second throw was more successful?” She smiles and replies that he just managed to do a better job. He turns to Mathew and explains “The second time around I was more focused – I knew what I wanted and I knew just a bit better how to get there and so I was closer to my aim...Why can’t we all look at this situation as our second chance in life?” He then makes Mathew throw shell after shell into the waters and they all laugh like happy children.
That is when they decide to run off together and grab a few moments of joy unfettered by the admonishing of their children and their small-minded disapproval. There was also an implicit admission in his statement of the far deeper bond Grace shares with Mathew than she perhaps ever had with him. And yet the simplest message of them all was that one should never stop striving for happiness.
The movie has far too many layers for me to present one view and expect it to be the right one. I took away from the watching of it a beautiful feeling of being closer to understanding something about the nature of love. If you truly love someone, you do not hesitate to let him or her free. The total acceptance and joy in another being opens you up to give and receive even more love. Not all love is the same and there need not be a name for relationships of the heart. Watch the movie for a fine story and masterful performances but take away from it something far more enduring – a new understanding of love and relationships...
