Pada Review | Excellent making, thrilling battle
Excellent script, direction and making, the most comprehensive narration of an event, clear political perspectives along with a thrilling cinematic experience and impressive performances – in a nutshell about Kamal KM’s Battle. The film also shows that accurate politics can be put forward without shouting slogans. Due to this, Pada is getting a place in the list of must watch Malayalam movies.
In 1996, Ayyankali Pada came up with a different struggle for what it was and the film Pada is fulfilling that need once again. They held the Palakkad Collector hostage in order to draw the attention of the media and the public to the land issue facing the adivasis. The film manages to convey that need to more people through the political clarity and excellent making it puts forward.
Ever since the news of the film ‘Pada’ came out, it has come out in the media and elsewhere that it was Ayyankali’s captive struggle. This incident, which took place a few years ago, is a well-known event all over Kerala and is familiar to at least some people.
The making of the film and the excellence of the director Kamal KM can be seen most in the fact that the army is able to take the audience through the emotional moments, even knowing what the ending of the story that is important in the film will be. Every point that follows the planning and action of the captivity is full of curiosity.
The best script is the biggest plus point of the battle. The audience is able to move with the film every moment. The battle comes with very natural dialogues and story contexts. Prakash Raj’s character’s saying that things have not changed from what they were 36 years ago ‘is a striking dialogue but not at all dramatic. It all comes down to how each character and their perspective can be understood.
Moreover, this film, which comprehensively and honestly covers various aspects related to the captivity struggle, would have taken a class if the script had gone awry. The ideals of the Ayyankadapada, the tribal land issue that led them to the struggle, the laws, and the moves by the government and the police and the center if a collector is taken hostage, arbitration, court interventions, some crucial decisions, hostage and hostage families, their fears, food, etc. Subjects are coming into the film.
Along with this, there are some emotional threads in the film like the characters of Kumaretan Kunji. The social background and character of the four main characters can be shown without much description or flashbacks. Kamal’s screenplay has managed to bring a handful of such things to life in the most beautiful way without losing any of the flow of the film.
Some of the one-off sequences in the film were also beautiful. There are two lottery players in the movie. A blind man and a middle-aged woman. They tell a total of two or three dialogues in the film. The woman then tells JoJo George’s character that she has no choice but to buy a ticket, and then asks if she wants a cup of tea. Those were very small scenes but there were parts that felt like something beautiful. So were the words of that blind lottery man.
The highlight of the film is the casting. Vilayodu Sivankutty, Ramesan Kanhangad, Kallara Babu and Ajayan Mannoor are the real leaders of the Ayyankali army. Not only Vinayakan, Kunchacko Boban, Joju George and Dileesh Pothen, but also the Palakkad Collector, Chief Secretary Prakash Raj, government official Jagadeesh, Judge Salim Kumar and Advocate TG. Indrans, who arrived as Ravi and Ravunni, was accompanied by policemen and journalists. Every casting was so accurate, including the actress who represented K Janu. The cast has taken care to cast the actors who are most closely associated with the real people associated with the event.
Kamal K to make the best use of each of the actors. Em has been able to. The four main actors make all the combination scenes great. And even in a single scene, everyone who comes in has acted out their parts with realism. It seems to say that everyone gave a great cinematic experience by giving the best performance, rather than having someone’s performance stand out.
However, some of the performances are a little more personal in mind. One of them is Vinayakan and the next is Jojo George. I also liked the performances of the actor who became a collector and the actor who played the role of Kumaretan.
The making of the final parts of the film and the way in which the members of the Ayyankali army were shown what happened next was excellent. At the end of some films, the visuals of the actual events and the information and figures related to the subject are shown in a clumsy manner or it may seem difficult to convey the idea of the film to the audience. But in this film it seemed to be the most fair presentation of the theme it deals with. Moreover, towards the end of the film, there is a desire in the audience to see these things.
There was only one thing in the film that seemed to need to be further improved. The film manages to capture the essence of the tribal land movement that seeks to change the Ayyankali army through this protest.
Although the film highlights the need to give tribal land to the adivasis, it does not explicitly state what kind of change the Kerala government made in the adivasi land law at the time or why the move should be criticized. Moreover, the film often does not approach government systems and bureaucracy critically enough.
The battle must have seen a separate protest that lasted for hours and presented a group of young people through that struggle, the most relevant tribal land issue today and most comprehensively as a thrilling cinematic experience.
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