The luxury of elaborate narration and extravagant conceptualization are those aspects which a writer always enjoys. Ironically, these aspects define the boundaries for a filmmaker which will be a difficult task while transforming a literary work into cinema. Leela has succeeded that challenge turning out to be a bold, classy & unorthodox film adaptation of an acclaimed literary work in malayalam. The opening sequence of the movie furnishes the lead character, kuttiyappan keeping the vibe until the climax scene. The directo r actor duo to be given full credit for this charm. It’s indeed a daring attempt by Renjith to sketch this short story in big screen. He has succeeded in almost every aspect of this movie, including cast & crew. Surely its a ‘Film by Renjith and crew’. Biju Menon, Vijayaraghavan, Indrans, Jagdeesh & Paravthy contributed their fullest to the performance part while Prashant Ravindran scored well with brilliant cinematography, particularly those top angle aerial shots of deep forests. Bijibal’s background music was magnificent, creating the perfect mood for the movie.
My call outs are, Vijayaraghavan with his impressive body language and gestures proves one of the finest actors in malayalam industry. Jagdeesh has his career best performance till date playing the role as Nair, must say a come back movie. Indrans, yet another example of late discovery. Parvathy as Leela with deep shadowed eyes, without having any single dialogue in the movie set a stand for her promising career. Finally Biju menon with his natural grace and impulsive dialogue delivery handled the major portion of kuttiyappan character, also succeeded in going beyond his comfort zones in intense emotional sequence.
Movie intrudes into the man’s hypocritical ethics, vulnerabilities and moral values perhaps also gives the viewers something to think and act against current social issue.
