Film Review

Swopaanam: A celebration of Aural and Artistic legacy of the state

    

           This is the first in malayalam film to capture the unique aural and artistic legacy of the state- Chenda and Melam. Through the mark of good charecterization and capturing the identity of the land he belong to, we can see the film maker, Shaji,  is true to his root, kerala's tradition of percussion and many legendary artists who live ahead of their times

we can't find any recent film took so much care and attention to the melody and rhythm of the soil on every scene 

         Jayaram stars as Unni  who is genius who marchers to a different drummer and this genius makes his life all the more complicated. Unni meets a kindred soul in a Mohiniyattam dancer Nalini, enacted by Kadambari, an US-settled Odissi dancer

Siddique, Sreekumar, Vineeth, Lakshmi Gopalaswami, Indrens ans Sharath come up with fine performances. Siddique is the best in a landmark role as Narayan Nambothiri, an oddball aristocrat and elder brother who is mix of scholarship and superstition, coward and cunning.

Along with the stars, around 150 talented percussionists and kathakali artist from across Kerala also tires their roles for camera.On other side,

the movie journeys through various phases of the life of a man including love, insanity and death.

Swapaanam released in Kerala, in February 27, 2014.The cinematography was held by Saji Nair and music was composed by Sreevalsan J Menon. while the script was written by Harikrishnan and Sajeev Pazhoor, based on Shaji’s own story

The film was screened in the Dubai International Film Festival