Movie Summed: A memory trance of two worlds in Nanpakal Nerath Mayakam (mid-day slumber)

By Athira Elssa Johnson -


Image from the Instagram handle of the movie 


“James” wakes up as “Sundaram”, intersecting two worlds; a Kerala theatre troupe and a village in Tamil Nadu.


Lijo Pellissery's directorial 'Nanapakal Nerath Mayakkam', a Malayalam-Tamil movie starring Mammootty, starts off at a roadside motel in Velankanni, Tamil Nadu. 


A theatre troupe from Kerala visits the pilgrimage shrine in Velankanni, the group is loaded on a bus and plans their return to Kerala. Actor Ashokan’s character who is one among the pilgrims has an urgency to get back home sooner as he has a ration shop to open the next morning. 

But James ( Mammootty) comes late to take the bus, simply because he functions on his own terms, he shows off his arrogance and is a patriarch who nitpicks about everything to his wife Sally (Ramya Suvi). 

 

His son and the others sing to pass the time during the bus ride and James instantly gets annoyed and stops them 


 Just when one observes James closely, the movie drifts to everyone in the bus dozing off to a nap, James suddenly wakes up, tells the driver to stop the bus, and walks along a field into a village. 


He confidently navigates the village lanes, and walks into a house as if he belongs there. Changing his white mundu to a colour lungi, patting his dog, and feeding the cow, he simply fits into the persona of the missing householder Sundaram, whose parents, wife,and daughter live there. 


He goes on with his routine, like Sundaram. There is a chorus of Tamil language movie music, providing commentary, sputtering motor engine, radio banter, and panoramic cinematography of the village household that ensures one that it should be Sundaram’s world.


James, now identified as Sundaram, tells Poovally (Ramya Pandiyan), the lady of the house , that she should have let him know that they’re low on groceries. He makes a coffee for him and takes a ride on the motor-scooter as he owns it, here the village and his family circle around the village to stop him. There is a sudden switch from the family-comedy drama to a dream logic or magic realism in the way the story shifted from the Kerala-Malayalam-speaking backdrop to a tamil household, a deliberate mix of the two unlikely blending groups put together. 


This is evident when the Kerala troupe gradually wakes up in the bus, trying to understand what is happening and the Tamil village hosts are equally clueless about the situation. 


 They contemplate many probabilities as to why this happened.

James has transformed into Sundaram and there is no possible explanation for it. 


Unless one wants to believe that their long lost Sundaram is back, maybe that's the beauty of it, one can interpret that it was James in a fantasy world all the while, and can yet argue Sundaram is real, or maybe it was Poovally, her daughter and Sundaram’s people’s wish that came alive but not entirely, it’s left to all kinds of interpretation. 


The movie draw details, in every scene, so comprehending the course of happenings has endless probabilities.


 This contrasting duality performed by Mammotty is convincing to a level that makes one miss Sundaram back in the village when the bus drives off with James to Kerala, and Sundaram’s dog, Sevela runs behind the bus. 


He takes a last look at his village, James or Sundaram. One wonders. 




" I believe in the power of lived experiences and documenting stories . I try to survive amidst the stigma, hate and act against any means / system of oppression. Considers intersectionality as to be the most important in politics and elsewhere. Trying to learn, relearn and unlearn as a journalist. My beat is health and I pursue it with understanding of communities "

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