Casanova wins women's hearts, loses audiences

What has Mohanlal got to do with malayalee psyche? The social psyche's repressed sexuality usually finds an outlet in the enigmatic symbol called Mohanlal perhaps because his reel and real life images coalesce to make the malayalee male's alter ego. Lal is the eponymous 'Krishnan' with his numerous gopikas whereas Mammootty is the ideal monogamous 'Rama'. Mammootty has that frigidity when he mingles with his heroines and there are a number of movies in which he ruthlessly chides away the advances of young beautiful heroines ('Chronic bachelor', 'Pappayude swantham Appoos', 'No. 1 Snehatheeram', 'Hitler', 'Mazhayethum munpe' 'Snehamulla simham' to name a few). Mohanlal is a safety valve for the malayalee male whose youth gets entangled in the taboos in a hypocritically moralistic society. Lal's private and public image is that of a Dionysian lord: he could afford to appear in a commercial and ask 'what have you planned for your evening?' When he is with his heroines one could feel the 'sringara' rasa brimming in his body language. Casanova is nothing but an exposition of that image; the 'eat, drink and be merry' Lal whose so called numerous escapades always fascinated Malayalees. So here is Casanova, a dealer in flowers (though nothing of that sort ever appears in the film), a globe trotter with a retinue of beautiful women to assist him, who in turn are crazy about him. Every year he comes to Dubai to enjoy his life. On one such occasion he meets a beautiful girl, Sameera (Shriya Saran), falls for her head over heels, and the film resorts to the usual song and dance pattern. Tragedy strikes when he is about to propose to her. And his revenge-plans take up the rest of the movie. Apart from technical perfection (this is the costliest movie in Malayalam so far), an exotic locale (why are the directors who have given some of the good movies and are promising in their career are going for exotic locations with a poor story line? Lal Jose did that in Spanish masala, and now its Rosshan Andrrews' turn it seems), all the expensive vehicles (which for an ordinary middle class Malayalee is just a dream, and a bar attached car will make him ecstatic!), wine and women this movie has absolutely nothing to offer to the audience. When a corporate giant is producing the movie with all the fanfare and oodles of advertisements and when Mohanlal is in the title role, to have a story to go with scenes seems a tall order.

From a feminist perspective the movie is highly derogatory with the camera indulging in titillating gaze. There are women of all nationality, size and skin colour offering voyeuristic pleasure to the male spectator. These women have no role except to surround the hero wherever he goes and cry in oomph how badly they were waiting for him. For the hero these women belong to the use-and-throw category with an expiry date of two weeks. The way he flaunts his cigar asserts his phallic authority. He uses women and their bodies to allure the villains and gain his means without any qualms about them being individuals and having human dignity.
Rosshan Andrrews started his career as a promising director with 'Udayananu tharam' followed by national award winning 'Notebook' which had an unconventional storyline and had three young girls as the protagonists. Similarly Bobby and Sanjay duo changed the putrid scenario of Malayalam movies which was revolving around two major heroes bringing in a whiff of freshair scripting the crisp 'Traffic' which ushered in a new trend last January. Traffic succeeded on the strength of a tight script. Obviously the expectations were high when Rosshan Andrrews and Bobby Sanjay were paired with one of the greatest actors in the Malayalam industry. Unfortunately after creating a niche for themselves they are retreating to the stale order of things where they tried to bring changes. The director has already vouched his interest in Bollywood and this venture looks like an entry ticket. From the latest news it is already confirmed that Casanova will be remade in Hindi with Rosshan doing the direction himself. So for him
Malayalam cinema is just a spring board to rise to 'higher' places and follow the footsteps of his predecessors like Padmasree Priyadarshan and Siddiq.
One pertinent question that has already been asked is what happens when cinema becomes ruled over by corporate giants who use this medium to advertise their products? What is their stake in sustaining this medium? And what happens when talented directors, script writers and actors join in the league to make a fast buck? These companies could promote their movie through stylishly done ads, posters and other promos and create hype. They also go for wide releases (Casanova had 1000 shows daily) so that before people get the time to ponder over the merits of the movie the producers get back their money. (Ra -One and 7 aum arivu are other recent examples). When people seem to revel in pomp and looking for carnival what will happen to genuine efforts? Hope this trend is not here to stay for long.