As a result, some of the additions in the playlists below are full jukeboxes without the ability to make them play just one song that I had in mind. Because! Do let me/other readers know your favorite songs so that it presents other perspectives of best songs of 2015.Īlso, YouTube has, unfortunately, removed the feature to add a start and end time in videos embedded inside a playlist. This happens to be the 8th annual music round-up in Milliblog, in a year where Milliblog completed 10 years! This list is for soundtracks released between Decemto December 15, 2015.Īnd remember, it is perfectly justifiable to have reactions like, ‘How can *that* be so high on the list?’, or ‘Where is *that* song? C’mon!’. Aided with some admirable connective tissue throughout, 'Pathemaari' is an ode to the life of a common man, who dreamt of living his life some day, and who eventually never did.A version of this post was published in The Hindu. Salim Ahmed's 'Pathemaari' is at once a brittle and real aide memoire that prompts you to take one hard look at an expatriate whom you always knew from close quarters. The musical score by Bijibal is simply out of the world, and equally commendable are the soulful lyrics penned by Rafeeq Ahmed. The film also has one of the best technical teams behind it, and while Madhu Ambatt stuns us with some astounding cinematography, Resul Pookkuty does wonders with the sound design.
There is Siddique who impeccably shines in a cameo, while Shaheen Siddique makes a confident debut as Narayanan's son. It's also refreshing to see Sreenivasan in a role that tells a tale or two of its own. The film also has a whopper performance from Jewel Mary, who strikes all the right chords as Narayanan's wife. There is a defencelessness that Mammootty has infused into the eyes of the man who toils away on an alien land, realizing all the while that life, or what is left of it, is fast ebbing away as the tides and seas that divide him from the ones whom he holds close to his heart.
Narayanan is without doubt one of Mammootty's best performances in recent times, and the actor never for a moment lets it slip away from his hands, by bringing in an amazing level of constraint to his performance, even in scenes that apparently stipulate an inflated display of emotions. Rather, Narayanan is one of the many men whom we have come across, who have lived their life solely for others, to the point that they do not recall having a life of their own. I wouldn't for once agree with the confrontation that Ahmed plasters his protagonist in shades of goodness, while painting the others around him in shades of grey. When his sons think otherwise, Narayanan leaves home once again, never to return. In what could perhaps be called a shattering climax, when Narayanan's coffin is brought in, his best friend (Sreenivasan) proposes that it be kept on the verandah of the new house that was being built, that had been the man's dream. Years later, with mobile phones having replaced the long queues before the telephone booths, Narayanan rings up home, and as Nalini walks towards the ringing telephone, her youngster sons suggest that she tells their dad that they have fallen asleep. Left alone in a telephone booth, miles away from what he believes to be his home, the crestfallen man pays heed to the din, before his wife slams the receiver down at the other end. In a stellar scene of sorts, Narayanan telephones home on the morning of his niece's wedding and is left listening to the sounds of the hubbub as the family gets all set for the marriage.
'Pathemaari' is by no means a feel-good film that would leave you glowing in your seats. But then, the skies clear up and the film sets sail, almost nonchalantly moving along the unruffled waters, casting an eerie silence of sorts that buries plenty of unspoken words within. The initial half an hour of 'Pathemaari' is as wobbly as the boat that rocks up and down along the seas, having been caught in a storm. There are several instances in the film that leave a lump in your throats, and the film transcends its strangely familiar story by evolving into cinema that is served with a purpose, and one that ventures even beyond it. The well balanced character exposition and the pointed dialogues inject the progression of the plot with an ingenuity that cannot be missed. Garments, perfumes and pista packets having been distributed and the crowds having dispersed, Narayanan shares a quiet moment with his wife and smells the perfume that he sprays on her. There is a beaming family portrait that awaits Narayanan in Kerala and the man is flanked by a huge extended family, before whom he unlocks his suitcase.