Pranayam - I'm your man

Pranayam

Malayalam, 2011

Director - Blessy

Stars - Mohanlal, Jayaprada, Anupam Kher, Anoop Menon

Mohan's Measure ⭐⭐⭐

I am probably one among many Indian Americans who never heard of Leonard Cohen until after seeing Mohanlal imitate his singing in Pranayam. That should give you a fair idea of this film, which has received several awards, but mixed reviews from critics.

If anything should be praised, albeit it is expected, it is the brilliant acting of the three leads. Theirs is more about what is not expressed, than what is said; and it is their ability to convey such in the way they look at each other which turns acting into art form.

Particularly impressive is Mr. Kher as Menon. He has suffered the most emotionally in his self-created purgatory. In a way he is the Fischer King, complete healing just out of his reach. In a telling scene, his ex-wife's husband asks him to care for her upon his death. Mr. Kher offers a look which tell us he is caught between fear of losing his friend and wishing to be reunited with his lost love. There is poetry here, a melancholy that comes straight out of Cohen's writings, at least what little we know of it.

But, what is brought to the screen by these three characters is diluted by the caricature of the others. How is it that 40 something children in the 21st Century could not offer empathy or at least sympathy for the fate that brought their parents together? How is it that one cannot accept having a stepfather, or feel for his own father's smile after all these years? I wish Blessy had taken time to address these things, rather than leaving these issues recklessly ignored. In the end, Blessy offers an ending far removed from the poetry and philosophy intended.

I am left befuddled, and struggling to get Mr. Mohanlal's gruff singing out of my head.