Cineflections-58
Bandhanam – (The Bond) 1978, Malayalam
-Manjula Jonnalagadda
“Eventually, I sickened of people, myself included, who didn’t think enough of themselves to make something of themselves- people who did only what they had to and never what they could have done. I learned from them the infected loneliness that comes at the end of every misspent day. I knew I could do better.” – Mark Twain
Bandhanam is a film written and directed by M.T. Vasudevan Nair. This film was released in 1978.
M.T. Vasudevan Nair was a literary doyen of Kerala. He won the coveted Sahithya Akademi Award for his first novel Naalukettu when he was 23. He wrote several shorties and at least ten novels. Naalukettu, Randamoozham, Manju, Kaalam, Asuravithu, Iruttinte Athmavu are among his notable works.
He was also a well respected screenplay writer. He wrote the screenplay for 54 films. He won the Best Screenplay Award four times at the National Film Awards. His debut film as a director was Nirmalyam which won the Best Feature Film Award at the National Film Awards. He made seven films. Bandhanam is his second film. He passed away on December 25th 2024. He was awarded Padma Vibhushan posthumously. Many outside of India do not know about his work. I strongly recommend you to check out his books. They are available on Kindle.
The film opens with Unnikrishnan getting to work. He works as a clerk in a city. Sarojini is his co-worker. Unni and Sarojini work with Swami who works as a cashier and Sankaran Nair who works as a peon. Swami is heavily into gossip and Sankaran is a gambling addict. Sankaran borrows money from Unni regularly. Sarojini and Unni start working on the same day. However Sarojini joins in the morning and Unni in the afternoon, making Sarojini his senior at work. As a result, he loses his promotion to Sarojini. Though Unni downplays it, he is affected by it. Unni mostly keeps to himself at work. He lives in a lodge, and drinks every day.
Sarojini is attracted to Unni. Unni does not respond to her interest well even though he likes Sarojini. They meet a few times outside work, but Unni does not want to take it to the next level as Sarojini does. One day Unni receives a letter from his estranged step sister. He decides to take time off from work and visit his step mother and step sister. The rest of the film is about what happens next.
The film is character driven rather than plot driven. It is all about Unniand his relationship with people around him. Unni is commitment phobic. His father leaves his mother to marry another woman. This incident affects the way Unni processes his relationships. His fraught relationship with his uncle adds to the complexity. He is capable of loving however. He doesn’t turn away Sankaran when he needs money. He has a sort of close relationship with the cook of the lodge, Acchuman. He bonds with step mother and step sister fairly easily.
The women are independent in their own right. Sarojini is an independent woman who makes her own choices. She is working and helping her family pay off the debt. That doesn’t keep her from thinking about marriage. When Unni seems disinterested she says “I am not going to cry and beg for you.” In other words she will move on, if he is not interested. In fact 1970s were the time middle class women started working. Films of that time reflected the confidence these women had and the challenges they dealt with.
M.T. Vasudevan Nair is considered one of the finest writers of Kerala. He was also an excellent screenplay writer and a filmmaker as well. His stories are real and reflect the life he has seen. Nair, like many Indian film makers, employs melodrama to tell his stories. But this is not the kind of melodrama that turns one off.
The performances in the film are very good. Sukumaran as Unni is very good! Shubha, even though a Telugu, never got her due as an actress in the Telugu film industry. Sarada and Archana got some chance to showcase their talent in Telugu. Subha never did. She excelled in her role as Sarojini.
Background score of M.B. Sreenivasan is very good. There are two songs in this film, which were very well scored.
Watch this film to check out the work of the maestro, who made only films, but left a huge gap as a storyteller when he passed away on 25th December 2024.
*****
Manjula Jonnalagadda is from Hamsavaram, East Godavari Dist, and lives in Los Altos, CA. She is a Techie by profession and complex by nature. She loves to read; Chekhov, Kafka, KoKu and Sankaramanchi are among her long list of favorites. She is serious about films, and a regular at a few local Film festivals. Her other interests are quizzing and hiking. While she enjoys western classical music and all kind of vegetarian food sans beans and fake meat, she seeks comfort in Carnatic music and curd rice.