'Pranayam', a film you can take home with you

There’s a scene in Blessy’s Pranayam (translation: Love): Protagonist Mathews, a retired philosophy professor (played by Mohanlal), is on a wheelchair. Half of him is paralysed. Even tears are partial to his left eye. He is in a nightclub with his wife, Grace (Jayaprada) and her ex-husband, Achyutha Menon (Anupam Kher). And Mathews sings ‘I’m Your Man’ by Leonard Cohen. Face muscles straining, voice loud but quivering. Every once in a while, his left eye twitches and widens to underline I’m your man. “If you want a lover, I’ll do anything you ask me to. And if you want another kind of love, I’ll wear a mask for you. If you want a partner, take my hand. Or if you want to strike me down in anger, here I stand. I’m your man...” Mathews sings; on top of his world, unabashed, brimming with a confidence bordering on arrogance. The rest of the movie be damned, that scene is Blessy’s redemption.

His art is not evasive, but Blessy is quite so. There’re a lot of hmms, and errs, and he sums up his beliefs in a few broad strokes. “Cinema cannot be something left behind in the theatre, after the show with just empty chairs for company. I want my movies, the story and its characters, to go home with the viewers, and stay on inside them,” he says. This has been his endeavour since his debut Kaazcha (translation: Offering). It won three Kerala State Film Awards, including that of Best Film and Best Actor. That was in 2004, not too far back, but Blessy’s relationship with cinema began as a child.

His home in Thiruvalla, a small town in south Kerala, was beside a movie theatre, Suguna. “I grew up playing in that hall. I was always there, and everyone who worked there — projectionist, ticket-seller — were my friends. And at night, I could hear the movie playing the late-night second show. I was watching it in my head.” The dialogues, soundtracks would waft into his room, and he would imagine the visuals. That was Blessy’s first elaborate experiment with cinema. He lost his father when he was three, and mother, when sixteen. “I am going to be a filmmaker,” he remembers telling his mother when he was in Class VI. To that, she had said: “Finish your graduation first, and then do whatever you want to do, films or anything.” So he studied zoology in college.

Why zoology? “Hmm… maybe because I could draw well. Everybody in my family was in the medical field, so, urr... zoology sounded fine.” College days were less studies and more movies, drama, and theatre. And, of course, many prizes — best actor, director, dramatist. Next came a string of disappointments as he failed to get through the entrance examinations at various film schools. However, he used those few years as best as he could. He toured villages around Thiruvalla as part of a Film Society Movement, Sudrishya, sourcing prints of best movies from all over the world, and screening them.

Then, Blessy got lucky.

Padmarajan took him on as an assistant director for Namukku Parkkan Munthiri Thoppukal (translation: Vineyards for us to dwell in). That 1986 film went on to become a cinematic landmark. With it began Blessy’s schooling for 18 years. Seven films with Padmarajan, and a few others with several top-notch directors of Malayalam cinema. “Kaazcha, the first film I wrote and directed, was my offering to my guru, Padmarajan,” Blessy says. “The story came to me in 1995 while working with director Jayaraj in Deshadanam (that film won the national award for best regional film in 1997). The 2001 earthquake in Gujarat gave me another perspective for it. About how nature’s fury has man helpless.”

Blessy’s second film, Thanmathra (translation: Molecule), based on Padmarajan’s short story ‘Orma’, won even wider acclaim.

This movie, which showcased the effects of Alzheimer’s disease on the life of an individual and his family, sort of set a benchmark for its maker. His next three films — Palunku, Calcutta News and Bhramaram — couldn’t meet the high expectations. A fact that, Blessy says, didn’t affect him much. “They were good movies. I made them with the same sincerity with which I approached others. If it didn’t strike a chord with someone, that’s their perspective. I never have viewers in mind when I make a movie. They meet the movie only after its completion.”

So, is praise for Pranayam being taken in with similar equanimity?

“Yes, of course,” Blessy says. He credits its success to the three lead actors. Even the ‘I’m your man’ scene. “You see, in my mind, I just had Mathews singing an English love song. Mohanlal chose Cohen’s song. And it fit, perfectly.” We agree.