Vaasthavam

Vaasthavam-Movie review

I saw Padmakumar's Vaasthavam last Friday at Padmam theatre in Chennai. I was pleasantly surprised to see a decent crowd for the matinee show on a working day. The movie is set in the Kerala state Secretariat and shows the dirty politics, corruption and red-tapism that takes place in the corridoors of power in a realistic manner.

Prithviraj plays the role of Balachandra Adigal a Nambboothiri who is the sole breadwinner of his family. Situations force him to marry a woman whom he does not love to create a secure future for his sisters.

Balan reaches Trivandrum, where he stays with Unnithan Jagathy Sreekumar in an excellent role that could fetch him one more award. He is a retired peon who is a living encyclopaedia of Kerala state politics, he initiates Balan into his job as a clerk in the Revenue department.

Balan is attracted to a beautiful divorced woman played by Sindhu Menon they have a relationship using which Balan becomes the secretary of a minister played by Murali. Slowly Balan becomes a powerful playmaker, as he degrades morally. Meanwhile his true love played by Kavya Madhavan is married to an alcoholic policeman who keeps abusing her.

Balan arranges for the policeman to be killed. He is involved in the forceful eviction of tribals for the construction a foreign investment based factory. At a juncture he makes Jagadheesh a replacement for Murali. He distances himself from Sindhu, who decides to teach him a lesson by sleeping with Jagadheesh and then threathening to disclose the news with evidence.

Balan tries to make a compromise by agreeeing to Sindhu's demand of marrying her, but she says she is no longer interested in him and can take all the evidence. Balan realises he is a loser as everyone the woman whom he loved, the woman who seduced him and his wife all desert him.

He visits his mentor Jagathy and says he will reform and become a good civil servant. He leaves in the pouring rain of the night, he is killed by rowdies hired by the foreign company whose project is stalled by Balan's actions.

The moral-"Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely."

Two good songs and a tight screenplay, a movie for people who love serious cinema and a nice continuation to "Vargam."

My rating-3.5/5.