Knowing the culture of Kerala in general and the film-goers here, It is almost impossible to believe that this film was received so widely. The debut feature film by Sanal almost redefined independent film for malayalees.
He succeeded very well in creating a strong and different experience on screen and in my head/heart. I was in search of Maya myself during the course of the film, and even when I knew that she was never going to be found elsewhere, I kept searching.
There are many factors that related me to this film. More than a year ago I was traveling in North India all by myself and let me be honest, the scenes of Ganga in Rishikesh and the shots of the Himalaya connected me back to my own past. At an emotional level this film brought back the memories of my own selfish nature in my relationship with the girl who taught me many things.
As the debut feature length film from a talented director, the film did not disappoint me at all. The 99 minutes I spent in front of the big screen definitely gave me an experience worth remembering.
My compliments don't mean that I loved everything about this film. There have been moments of bad acting which threw me out of the illusion of film. Especially the dialogue delivery by Prakash Bare seemed unrealistic at many points. The issue can be with the lack of experience from the actor, the dialogues themselves or even his lack of understanding of the part of the script. No matter what the issue was, it was non-existent in the scenes where he was actually searching for Maya (or himself). At the same time Meena displayed amazing understanding of the character despite some minor issues again with the way dialogues were delivered. As a keen observer of the technique and the medium I was amazed by your ability to create cinematic poetry on the screen and it seems to be your key strength.
I admire and appreciate the shot selections and camera angles, they not only conveyed beauty and the search for it but also helped to create the mood of the story. The nonlinearity was indeed a challenge for some audience but I personally loved the way you did it. My job as a viewer was made hard and that's the kind of involvement I like being asked by the director. When the director asks the investment of time, patience or thoughts from the audience I feel the mutual respect and that's something very important for me. In Oralpokkam, Sanal respected the audience well enough.
Editing of the film was one factor that made me bite teeth occasionally. There have been a few different occasions where I was looking at the closeup/mid shot and then for sure knew already that the camera is gonna show me the wide and extreme wide of the same. It was not a pleasant experience while I could predict shots to that certainty. I had serious issues with the first twenty minutes or so of the film. Especially the editing and acting at those parts. Cuts to the phone screen to tell the story could be avoided and that's something I personally disliked. I would have preferred even voice over to reading text messages on the screen. Even a reaction shot of Mahendran would have been enough to show how the relation with Maya was changing instead of telling me to read what was on the phone which was already apparent. I am being ruthless in commenting about these things because I believe that only constructive criticism can be of any use to artists.
None of these negative criticism mean that Sanal is any lesser director . Everything I have written is my personal opinion as a learner and observer of the medium and need not mean that these feelings or thoughts are universal to other viewers or learners. I would not even dare to compare Sanal's artistic creation with the garbage that is created in present day Kerala.
