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Thursday, April 25, 2024
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MALAYALAM 101 CHODYANGAL
EDITOR'S PICK
Movie Review by PS Arjun (Rating : 3.5/5)
101 Chodyangal is a story of a school student from a struggling family, searching for 101 questions. Anil Kumar Bokaro, eight year old kid deals with his troubling real-life situation by retreating into a world of 101-questions. 101 Chodyangal is a strange hybrid film.
There are few impressive scenes and dialogs which will work
well with any genre viewers. Eg.: Sati (Lena)’s first interaction with Mukundan
(Indrajith). The most impressive scene of all was the scene which leads to
interval. The shot when Bokaro ask the question to Mukundan ‘Why the color of
sky is turning red from blue?’ and the following background voice ‘Inquilab
Zindabad…’ was great. That was awesome. The movie is directed by Sidhartha Siva
and he deserves applause for the theme he selected for debut, for few memorable
scenes and for giving us this sweet and moving movie.
Among actors, Lena’s performance stands out. Respect. Best of
her till date, and of course, she does the best character of the film, the
character of Sita, the mother of Bokaro. The character is developed carefully
and was stable throughout. Great to see such performances from her especially at
a time when glamour dolls have the upper hand in the industry. Hope she will be
awarded with more and more performance oriented characters. This year we had
already seen few surprising great performances in Malayalam cinema like Hareesh
Peradi in 'Left Right Left'. Murugan as Sivanandan is another one to the list.
There are a lot of shots from back showing Murugan walking and we clearly see
and feel a person struggling in life. Sidhartha Siva to be appreciated for this
amazing casting. Minon as Anil Kumar Bokaro is good, especially towards the
ending. His performance during emotional scenes is amazing. Good to see Nishanth
Sagar once again in an important role and does a convincing job too. Baby Diya
was good in an emotionless character which creates emotion on us.
One question which arises into my mind from this movie is that isn’t it because of 101-questions-assignment, Anil Kumar Bokaro became dull,
emotionless, moved away from studies and got disturbed with his emotional
attachment with mother and sister?
Anil Kumar`s father Sivanandan was an employee at the sugar mill. He was dismissed due to some trade union problems. As the regular income stopped abruptly, Anilkumar's mother Sati had to shoulder the responsibility of keeping the family intact. She joins the Thozhilurappu scheme so as to earn a little sum. Sivanandan is still hoping to return to his old job at the factory, which appeared only a distant dream.
Anil's sister Anagha is disabled, which was an additional burden. Mukundan, the new teacher at the school becomes instrumental in bringing a sea change in Anil's life. He seeks the help of Anil to prepare a book of 101 questions and answers for sale in trains etc. Mukundan assures Anil one rupee for each question, which really tempted him.
The quest begins and Anil is in pursuit of questions. He turns to his life itself for the same. But at some point he got stuck and this makes changes in his mental makeup. He is caught in a world of questions only and all his childhood traits elude him. After a prolonged struggle, he completes 101 questions. But question 101 was about the loss in his life only. Anil knows no answer for the first hundred questions and he never wants to know. But he wants an answer from Mukundan Master for his last question. Though he had already prepared answers for the hundred questions, the Master fumbled here. He was unable to uncover an answer for the final one.
Leaving behind a hundred questions, he walks to a world which hides even more questions…Anil Kumar Bokaro.
