Ananth Natarajan

Ullozhukku (Undercurrent), the Malayalam movie on Prime. What a mature theme! And such brilliant actors to play it out! Not many people will agree with some of the plot points, but no one can deny the sheer quality of performance by Urvasi and Parvathy. It's this quality of acting that convinces us that, yes, it's possible that people can behave like this. It's been a long long time since such a movie revolving around two woman characters came in Tamil - may be a K Balachander movie in the 70s. Someone said the ending could have been better. So here goes... SPOILERS AHEAD. ___________________ There can't be a perfect ending in real life. Why should there be one in a movie? Every character behaved like they wanted to. No body was perfect. Kalla kaadhal dhaan. Adhaan interval ku munnadiye theriyume. But think of her reason for the ending. Rajeev wanted the property. She thought that was unfair. This shows something, no? And he pointed out that she had slept with another man. At that moment her love ended. Whereas leelamma had shown true love even after being betrayed. Loved the title Ullozhukku which means Undercurrent. Physically it stood for the flood ravaged village where the story happens. In fact so much happens despite the flood that it is only an Undercurrent. Metaphorically it stands for the thoughts running through people's minds, mainly those of Leelamma and Anju, so superbly portrayed by Urvashi and Parvathy. So many subtle moments in the moment. In fact so little of loudness in anything. But it all looks so natural too. The power of performance. 5/5.

One of my top 5 books. I go back to it every 5 years or so. First read in early 80s.