Vaishali (1988)
Language: Malayalam
Director – Bharathan
Writer: M.T Vasudevan Nair
Cast: Suparna Anand, Sanjay Mitra, V.K Sreeraman, Babu Antony, Geetha, Nedumudi Venu
Genre: Drama
IMDB: Vaishali (1988)
Streaming on Youtube.
What if there was a Baahubali like movie made in the 80’s. Larger than life characters, massive set, obviously drama in each frame, better emotions manifested. In general, a movie which was supposed to be inconceivable at that time. But here comes the third man from the trio*. Bharathan. He pulled off such a massive movie, in each frame we can see the Bharathan’s brilliance. The way he handles the enormous production is astonishing. Script written by M.T is unquestionable, it is an adaptation of sub-story from Mahabharata.
It is the story of devadasi girl Vaishali, who was assigned for the mission of seducing Rishyashrungan, the son of Maharshi Vibhandakan and bringing him to Chambapuri to perform a Mahayagam for rain. King Lomapadan has a curse from a Brahmin. When he consults with Rajguru, he gave him the idea of bringing Rishyashrungan to Angarajyam. Vaishali accepts this mission to save Angarajyam, it is not a very easy task to bring him because he has not seen anyone apart from Vibhandakan and he has not gone out from his greenwood since birth. If we look deep into this movie, we can see the sacrifice of women, how she boldly accepts this dangerous mission.
The film revolves around the journey of Vaishali. In every aspect, if we look deep at Vaishali we might be able to see all sorts of reflections of women nowadays. Both the director/writer didn’t place any made-up scenes. They just tried to hold the central character intact and did it elegantly which can be seen throughout the movie. These are one among the movies which we need to watch without reading any review. One thing is sure after watching this movie is that everyone will raise a bar for the Malayalam industry.
Verdict: 5/7 stars.
Excellent.
*trio- Bharathan, Padmarajan, & KG George
