Movie : Parudeesa
Director : R Sarath
Music : Ouseppachan
Cast : Thampi Antony, Sreenivasan, Swetha Menon
Director R Sarath’s Parudeesa deals with some rather shocking happenings in a remote village, with a Christian church as its backdrop. The film, which generated some interest after it was publicized as a controversial take on the questions of faith and so on, turns out to be a dull affair in the end.
Sreenivasan plays a priest Father Anjilithanam, who sticks to the strict, orthodox values. Jose (Thampi Antony) is a verger in the church and it is through his eyes that the story develops. The other relevant characters are a maid Thresia (Swetha Menon) and the rich church trustee Outhachan (Jagathy Sreekumar).
The film moves along without any definite direction most of the time and in between, Jose is expelled from the church, after being blamed in a scandal. He is believed to have been killed in a mishap soon after. The rest of the story happens after several years and by then Jose has become a priest, but no one identifies him.
There is a decent storyline here but the problem is the way it has been narrated. Vinu Abraham’s script is far from convincing and Sarath’s direction doesn’t make the film interesting either. The usual clich�s of the offbeat films are there and the efforts to commercialize the presentation have ended up as a rather half-baked one.
The entire film is based on Thampi Antony’s character and he is evidently struggling to fit in to the role. The rest of the cast including Sreenivasan, Jagathy Sreekumar and Swetha Menon repeats their usual styles.
Parudeesa (meaning ‘paradise’) has some worthy moments here and there, but spending two hours searching for them is perhaps far from exciting. There are some films that make you feel like in paradise with its eminence, but this one is not one of them.