A movie after my heart

I watched Padmarajan’s Thuvanathumbikal the other day – for the very first time. The man was a genius indeed. I was completely blown away by the story, by the treatment and by the excellent acting of every single character. This was a movie way ahead of its time – gutsy and touching all at once. Mohanlal as Jayakrishnan , the rural landowner from a village near Trichur , is simply terrific. But Sumalatha’s  Clara was in the same league. Its such a treat to watch a movie that not only has an original theme but also acting of such calibre that you lose yourself in the watching.

Right from the beginning of the movie when Jayakrishnan’s tightfistedness is shown to his completely different face when he escapes into Trichur for some fun, the movie gets you hooked. He lives for his friends – bankrolling their fun but other than being a frequenter at the bars, possessing of no vices himself. He has never slept with a woman for he was not the type to be able to walk away after a physical connection with someone. He was adamant that he wouldn’t be the cause of any woman’s dishonour. He had the reputation of a rake in college – an image he assiduously cultivated – but all his close friends knew that he was far from that in reality.

He finds himself attracted to Radha, a girl from a family related to his after she speaks her mind to him in the course of inviting his mother and sister to a family function. He goes to her college to ask her if she’d like to marry him since he was interested in her. She gives him an insulting negative in response. He flares up and gives her a reply in kind. He’s hurt and walks away. When Radha’s brother who happens to be a friend of Jayakrishnan learns of this incident, he berates his sister for being rude and tells him what a nice guy she had let slip. Radha gets intrigued and finds out his story by asking around and she cannot reconcile his completely different faces. She believes his true face is even more interesting and would only be revealed to the girl he loves. She lets him know she’s interested and they meet and talk often.

In the meantime when he was convinced of Radha’s disinterest, his friend approaches him to deal with a problematic girl who was the latest recruit in his ‘hotel’ business. The girl seemed willing enough to be a hooker – she had a hard family life and wasn’t highly educated. She was resigned but not eager and possessed of a poise that put the hotel manager off – so he needed Jayakrishnan to talk to her and find out what she really wanted. He reluctantly agrees and poses as a timber contractor and approaches her. She is lovely and intelligent. Her eyes are self-assured with a hint of vulnerability that make men want to protect her. She has an air of acceptance about her and she smiles often.

He is hooked when he first sets eyes on Clara and there is no looking back. They make love and he wants to marry the first woman he’s been intimate with. He tells her his real name, his village, all about his life. He tells her to stay in the room while he goes out to get some work done and by the time he’s back she has left. No one knows where she has disappeared to. He leaves with a heavy heart.

Later on he recounts the story to Radha who says its all fine so long as he never meets her again. He says that Clara would always be different. The first time he heard her name it rained. The first time he made love to her, it rained. Whenever she would come into his life, she would bring in the rains quenching his need and refreshing his mind. He would never not love Clara. But Radha was a practical sort – she was sure that was the last he’d hear of her.

Clara comes back one fine day – she sends him a telegram informing him about the train timings. He goes to pick her up and they stay away from the town and his village in a small run-down cottage, talking as if they had never been apart – sharing their bodies and minds with unquestioning love. She tells him about the other men. He tells her about Radha. She is happy for him. He is quiet when she tells him of the way each customer always ends up wanting her to marry him. Her laughter and the sadness in her eyes are undiminished – and she looks so beautiful that he is lost the moment he sees her alighting from a dusty train in a dusty station at 3 in the morning. They part with her vowing that they would not meet again after he marries Radha.

The days pass and his wedding to Radha is now being planned in full force. Lots of ups and down occur in their relationship when he tells her of his second meeting with Clara. But she is still devoted to him and they want to get married. His emotions are not clear beyond a fondness for the spirited country girl – she would undoubtedly fit in well with the family and make a good wife. His practical side acknowledges the need for her in his life. She too is beautiful. And yet when you see him with her, he does not glow with happiness the way he does with Clara.

Then one day the rains bring to him another telegram bearing news of Clara’s arrival. He tells Radha that he would go to see her. Radha says adamantly that the wedding date, indeed the wedding itself need be finalized only after his meeting with Clara since she clearly did not want him to go. Jayakrishnan is equally stubborn – nothing she said would make him change his mind and he promises her that he would marry her immediately if it would put her mind to rest but he would still meet Clara. She refuses and says she’d rather wait.

The day finally dawns when Jayakrishnan is shown waiting impatiently at the station. Radha waits in the shadows unknown to him. The train pulls up and he sees her at the door resplendent in a cream silk sari with a red-gold border. She has her thali and kumkum – all marks of a married woman and she walks towards him looking breathtakingly beautiful. A fleeting pain passes over his face before he smiles at her. She answers his unasked question saying she was married a year ago and she only stopped by on her way elsewhere so that she could say goodbye before his wedding. Her husband, an older gentleman, pops out of the compartment with a baby in his arms and she takes the infant from him while making the introductions. 

He leaves them alone and she looks at Jayakrishnan with all the old love in her eyes saying “I did not want us to do something that would ruin your life and the last time I was here I felt I was in danger of doing that. This was my only way out – the only way I could save you from myself.” He continues to be quiet while his eyes speak volumes and he looks tenderly at the baby in her arms. Her husband takes the child and re-enters the compartment while they say their final goodbyes. The whistle sounds and she boards the train – waving at him till a bend in the tracks takes her out of his sight forever.He keeps waving till after the train has left. It was the only ending that would work and yet he knew he could never love another woman the way he loved Clara. Radha steps out of the shadows. He smiles at her. They leave together. It does not rain.

What a movie! The theme was so beautifully presented that I fell in love with it immediately. The idea of a love that would transcend every conditioned thought is glorious. To know the kind of love that would make you set aside everything else and think only of the beloved with neither ego nor judgement clouding the most intense emotion in the world – that is a rare blessing indeed. Clara is a wonderful creature – not bound by morals as we know it – oddly practical and intensely passionate with the fore-knowledge that she would never get the chance to live with her one true love and yet smiling and grabbing those rare moments that she would cherish with him. Indeed a story that required courage to write and present to a Malayali crowd more than two decades ago.

Its worth watching more than once but to truly understand the spirit of this movie, you need to have been passionately in love some time in your life...