Udayananu Tharam

The big irony in “Udayananu Tharam” is that the writer who has decided to mock, bash and criticize the heroes (for all sorts of irresponsibility they show while a movie is in the making and the level of torture they give to the directors on the sets) through this movie takes the hat of the hero and the actor whom he is actually mocking takes the hat of the writer.

Mohanlal (Udayan) is an aspiring director. In his struggling days, he puts all his mind and energy and comes up with one of the most brilliant script and a screenplay. Srinivasan is Mohanlal’s roommate. He aspires to become a hero (not an actor). He steals and takes this ambitious screenplay of Mohanlal to a producer claiming it as his own screenplay. He himself acts as hero in the movie and becomes an overnight star. Though aware of this betrayal, Mohanlal is compelled to direct his first movie with Srinivasan as the hero. To hurt Mohanlal, Srinivasan walks out of the project when the film is almost complete. Only few more scenes are to be shot to complete the film. How Mohanlal makes Srinivasan to act for those few remaining scenes is what that leads to a brilliant climax.

The movie works mainly because of its screenplay. While it shows how irresponsible the actors are and how little role they play in the success of a film, he makes us realize that the writer/director is the real star of the movie by showing the amount of tantrums and tortures they face in this star driven industry before facing success. Those scenes which reveals about the stars serves as comedy line of the movie while those of the director’s tantrums are serious and emotional. This sinusoidal wave of two extreme emotions has been balanced well in the screenplay so that it neither becomes just a comedy nor it becomes a serious raw movie on reality of the film industry. But yet the episode of Meena and Mohanlal puts a speed breaker to the otherwise smoothly flowing screenplay. At least this can be excused as it serves to portray the personal problems of the aspiring directors, which acts as an obstacle for the aspiring directors to succeed in the career. But it makes the otherwise natural character of Srinivasan a little cinematically villainous when he says that he takes revenge on Mohanlal as he married Meena – his dream girl. When there is a realistic take on the heroes, it seems they forgot about the heroines or is it that the actresses are really this good in Malayalam film industry. In this movie, Meena plays the role of an actress who acts only in movies which has a good script. She says that she has come to cinema to act and have a creative satisfaction and not just to earn money. An irony again.

Though all the actors have done their part well, Srinivasan steals the show both as the writer and actor. Mohanlal has done a neat job in going through all the emotions of a struggling and aspiring director would go through. I wonder how Mohanlal accepted to do this movie as he himself got mocked in one of the scenes. It can happen only in Malayalam film industry. Meena is just okay. Most of the songs are crisp and before we feel bored, it ends. But the song sequences with Srinivasan and Meena are hilarious.

This movie is like how if one of Satyaraj’s spoof movies in Tamil were done with an artistic excellence. Udayananu Tharam proves that Srinivasan i.e., a writer/director is the real star.