Guruvayoor Ambalanadayil: Blending hilarious and nonsensical comedy

[00:00:00] Hi, welcome to Onmanorama Movie Podcast, Start, Action, Cut. Today we are decoding the

[00:00:19] Malayalam movie Guruvayurambal Nadai directed by Vipin Das. The movie stars Prithviraj,

[00:00:27] Basil Joseph, Nikhilav Imel and Anashwara Rajan in lead roles. Today, Ayyappan and Swati

[00:00:33] are joining the discussion. So we see that again marriage, relationships and their intricacies

[00:00:41] and anxieties are being woven into a plot to enthuse the audience. So plot wise,

[00:00:47] I think it's something new that how the relationship, how the connections happen

[00:00:52] in the movie. So that itself is if you narrate in one line, that's an interesting theme.

[00:01:00] So how do you define the plot structure? How was it for you, Swati?

[00:01:04] Well, Patpogmar, for me this movie was a complete entertainer. It works with family,

[00:01:08] it works with youngsters. I think it can connect to everyone really. A plot line

[00:01:15] as such, I wouldn't say the movies has a really complicated plot line or it has

[00:01:19] an elaborate storyline. It doesn't have one. It's just a very simple story which talks about

[00:01:25] the relationship between two brothers-in-law and the fun elements that happen between them

[00:01:31] and things that are going around them. There are so many people involved, their wives,

[00:01:37] their friends and people who know them. All of that. If you're looking for a good story

[00:01:43] and a meaningful movie, maybe this might not be the movie for you, but if you're looking

[00:01:47] for a fun watch or a lighthearted watch, then this movie really works well. The first half was

[00:01:54] really interesting. I liked how the movie went and the jokes were also really funny. But the

[00:01:59] second half I felt like the movie sort of started losing its charm and they were trying to go

[00:02:05] for this kind of climax sequence where so many things were going on and there were so many

[00:02:11] references from Prithviraj's previous movies and even Drifiyam. There were a lot of references

[00:02:18] added here and there, but to a point it was working. But after that it just seemed like

[00:02:23] a lot. But overall it felt like it was a decent watch without too much complexities,

[00:02:30] but it does get lagging at certain times. Yes, Swati. Now I think there are two elements

[00:02:37] that which I think are new, at least for me. I think there are two elements that interested

[00:02:43] me to a great level. One is the main premise of the film and the other is the bond between

[00:02:51] the two brothers-in-law because we have seen several movies where we see the brotherhood

[00:02:56] or the romance lovers and mother-son relationship or mother-parental care and such things.

[00:03:05] But here I haven't seen many movies which show this kind of relationship. So how would you

[00:03:12] explain the plot, Ayyappan? Padma Kumar, when you describe the plot of the film,

[00:03:18] when you spoke about the bond between the soon-to-be brothers-in-law, it seemed as if

[00:03:23] Guruvayur, Ambala and Adil, people might get the impression that it's a very profound

[00:03:26] film, which I think it is not. But I agree with what both of you said. It is a very

[00:03:32] solid comic premise. It's perfect to stimulate laughs. But I also thought that it had the

[00:03:40] potential, like you mentioned, there is a potential to pull at heartstrings.

[00:03:45] But it does not exploit that aspect, it does not exploit the intricacies that you mentioned.

[00:03:50] No, it doesn't. I'm not trying to say that it should have. Guruvayur, Ambala and Adil

[00:03:55] is a film that purposefully chooses to, chose to remain a loud, superficial comedy. Here

[00:04:03] everything is for laughs. No one is trying to probe internal conflicts. And I have no

[00:04:08] complaints at all because some of the films that I had enjoyed the most, be it Boing Boing

[00:04:14] or Malaveenu Madalakruttunnu, they're also loved superficial entertainers. And for such

[00:04:19] films to work, the performances have to be good. Guruvayur, Ambala and Adil is

[00:04:23] coars in this department. There is a madcap energy to the film, thanks to the performances.

[00:04:30] As you mentioned, it's made for just entertainment. I know it's not profound,

[00:04:36] but I think the situational humor, the slapstick and nonsense comedy blended with

[00:04:42] aplomb and right on the formulaic pattern of a commercial film. But there is also some

[00:04:48] heart-rending cordiality, conflict and tinge of romance and then colorful festivity, chaos,

[00:04:55] and then final battle and then redemption. So that is the mix, the formulaic mix.

[00:05:01] So other than that, I think the makers, they were not focusing on anything else.

[00:05:06] So don't you think that they made use of the formula to make a film successful? What do you say, Ayyuban?

[00:05:14] Padmumar, I didn't actually see it that way as Vibhinta is following a particular formula.

[00:05:19] In a sense, because the story is unique, you can't say that it's a formulaic film.

[00:05:27] I also found it pretty different, unique because of the over-the-top performance,

[00:05:33] because of the delightfully over-the-top performances. I thought that is what made

[00:05:38] this film different. I didn't feel the film was following any particular formula or a particular

[00:05:45] pattern. There were a number of sequences. Because of the sheer energy the performances

[00:05:53] gave to them, made the film a bit different, made the film a real fun ride. Take for example

[00:06:01] that scene that happens right after the soon-to-be brothers-in-law meet.

[00:06:07] By the time we see them, they are down some three or four pegs and they are in an exuberant

[00:06:12] mood. They are thinking of doom scenarios for a male and a female they detest. They have

[00:06:18] utter contempt for. And the worst possible destructive possibilities that they could

[00:06:24] think of for these two people gives them a kick. It is like these two men, these two young men,

[00:06:32] Anandan and Vinu, the Prithviraj and Basile characters, they are watching an Indo-Pak

[00:06:37] match and they are seeing Pakistan pickets going down. That is the kind of excitement

[00:06:41] that they show. But we as the audience know what they don't know. Anand, the Prithviraj

[00:06:48] character who does much of the talking is not aware that he is actually cursing himself

[00:06:55] and his wife. We know that. And so the humor comes from this unintentional self-mocking.

[00:07:02] So this is already over the top. What Prithviraj does is he takes this over the top

[00:07:07] and squares it. So what we see is over the top squared. See, we have had friends in schools

[00:07:13] and colleges who we laugh at for their weirdness. We laugh at them, we are amused at what they do

[00:07:19] at their weirdness. And so we laugh behind their backs. But the fact is as I realized later,

[00:07:26] many of these friends actually knew that they were being laughed at. And instead of feeling

[00:07:31] embarrassed or ashamed or isolated, they got a kick out of thinking that others were laughing

[00:07:38] at their deeds. So this got them excited. And what they did was then they pretended. They

[00:07:44] pretended not to be aware of people laughing at them and then they amplified their foolishness

[00:07:49] just to get that louder laugh, just to make people laugh even more. I thought Prithviraj did

[00:07:55] it that way. Prithviraj did the film that way. He was this friend of ours who pretended

[00:08:02] not to know that he was being laughed at and then end up this self-mockery. And the film would

[00:08:10] not have worked or this particular scene that I was mentioning wouldn't have worked had Basil not

[00:08:16] matched up. So Basil basically had just reactions to what Prithviraj was saying.

[00:08:22] And especially his laugh is sort of undefined, unrestrained laugh that in a very

[00:08:29] solemn gathering might look out of place. So all of this together, his laugh, his reactions,

[00:08:35] it is this particular chemistry between these two leads which is embodied in this particular

[00:08:41] scene that I was mentioning that makes the film work in such a lovely way. And when this

[00:08:50] film comes on OTT, this is a scene that I would like to watch again and again and again.

[00:08:54] It was such a lovely scene. Well, as you say, the humour is, I mean,

[00:09:00] you quite like the comedy and the humour. But I was thinking when I was watching the movie,

[00:09:06] at that time I felt that they were nonsensical comedy or humour. And there are a few elements

[00:09:14] which gathered steam for the film or gave some depth to the plot. Certain scenes,

[00:09:21] certain minute scenes. I wonder why Vibhindas didn't make use of or go further on those lines.

[00:09:28] Like one scene I would mention that when Basil Joseph's character Vinu was trying all the

[00:09:35] ways to foil the marriage. But at a certain point his brother asks him,

[00:09:41] so even after these many days, this much time, haven't you ever felt a bit of love

[00:09:48] for your fiancé or wasn't he thinking a bit seriously about her? So there was some minute

[00:09:59] mention of such aspects in between. So I think those things gave some depth to the whole story.

[00:10:06] So what do you say about the formulaic pattern, would you agree or what's your take on that,

[00:10:13] Swathi? I did not feel like the movie used any particular formula to be honest Padma Kumar.

[00:10:19] Because obviously maybe the kind of comedy that is used in the movie you might have heard before

[00:10:25] or you are familiar with the kind of, you know, the way they talk or things like that.

[00:10:30] But I think I did not, like I said, I did not feel like it was going in a particular

[00:10:36] pattern or that it was following a certain formula. The thing is about the comedy,

[00:10:40] it was really funny. Obviously, it will elicit a lot of laughs from the audience. But

[00:10:46] I think one of the things that I felt was I laughed so much because I was sitting with

[00:10:51] a lot of people around me and they were also laughing so hard. And I think it kind of forms

[00:10:57] a crowd mentality when you're like people around you are laughing and you're also laughing.

[00:11:01] But if you watch the movie in OTT, I don't know to what extent you laugh alone. Because

[00:11:07] there were certain scenes where I felt I was not even laughing at certain scenes that I was

[00:11:11] excited for certain scenes. Like this is a spoiler but scene where the Lord Krishna from

[00:11:18] Nandanam comes, I did not find it very amusing at all to be very honest. That's why I felt

[00:11:23] like there was like a lot of reference, a lot of things from the past is pushed into the

[00:11:28] movie just to make it enjoyable or I don't know what Vipinthas was going for with that.

[00:11:35] And also the female characters in the movie, I honestly felt like they were just props

[00:11:42] put into the story so that they'll boost Anand and Anvino. Because the whole movie is based on

[00:11:50] these two characters, their relationship, their chemistry. And I think Basel and Prithviraj

[00:11:55] were able to pull off their chemistry so well. And the way Basel says Anand and Anand

[00:12:02] and the way he tells Anashwara that he's coming to their house just to meet Anand first in the

[00:12:08] fact that he's buying an iPhone for Anand and then giving a tiger bum to his own father.

[00:12:15] All this was very funny and if you think about it, we don't really know what is the reason

[00:12:20] behind such a strong bonding between these two men because we don't know their backstories,

[00:12:26] even if they have a backstory, we don't know that if they have a backstory. But they have

[00:12:30] such a strong bonding and then it goes off and all of this happened. I felt like there was no

[00:12:35] proper character formation for any of these characters. We don't know their backstories,

[00:12:40] who they are. We just get small glimpses of who they are. And the female characters,

[00:12:45] nothing. They are just put in there so that to kind of reciprocate to whatever these two men

[00:12:52] does. And I think I was talking about this with others as well and they said

[00:12:57] maybe female artists or female characters these days, they don't really require that sort of

[00:13:03] prominence in a lot of movies like foreign movies like Avesham or any of the recent releases.

[00:13:08] I don't think I've seen any strong woman character and I think that this movie sadly

[00:13:14] falls into that category as well. I don't know if that is a fault or a flaw but

[00:13:20] female characters I don't think worked really well in this movie. And they don't even have

[00:13:25] much of a comedy element also. They were kind of serious and I think you only mentioned

[00:13:31] this to me before they were there to sort of balance out the movie. I don't know if

[00:13:35] I could, I don't know if I think the same way or if I could connect with that.

[00:13:39] Another thing is that the climax scenes and there are so many humor elements that didn't

[00:13:46] work for me. And especially the final, I don't know why Yogi Babu was there, what was his

[00:13:52] role in that? Was he really necessary? And the slap sticks and the fight and the KOs

[00:13:58] towards the end. Those all looked very bland. That's one aspect I didn't like about the movie.

[00:14:06] So what do you say about those scenes Ayyappan?

[00:14:09] Babu Kumar has two things that, one of the things that Swathi said and one thing

[00:14:14] that you just said, things that I found pretty lackluster about this film. One was the

[00:14:19] use of too many references, that's what he said. Too many references, there was Drishyan,

[00:14:24] there was Kakutika, there was Ullathai, and Nandanam. I didn't get Lucifer, I didn't

[00:14:32] get Griha Praveshan. Someone told me that there was Griha Praveshan. It was not there.

[00:14:36] Minimally they just, I didn't get the Lucifer thing, that reference I didn't get.

[00:14:41] So that I thought, I don't know how Jhansi kids would have, people like Swati, I don't

[00:14:46] know whether they've got all the references. But even us, people who have seen films in 80s

[00:14:51] and 90s, I also didn't get all the references. So I don't know why they used all these

[00:14:56] references. And that Ullathai Alita song, that Azhagi Laila song, that was basically a Ramba

[00:15:02] song where she gets this Marilyn Monroe moment where her dreads kind of blows. That's sort

[00:15:08] of a song it was. I didn't know why it was used for that Nikhil Adumali character.

[00:15:14] That was one thing. And the second was the Yogi Babu thing that you were talking about.

[00:15:19] This was a film in which everyone, right from Prithviraj and Basil, right to Prithviraj's

[00:15:24] younger sister's old stalker, all of them are delightfully over the top. And here we have

[00:15:30] Yogi Babu who does his usual trademark deadpan thing. I thought that deadpanniness of Yogi

[00:15:39] Babu didn't sit well with the tone and tenor of this film. I thought someone with a

[00:15:50] terrific comic expressionist, as in someone with a theatre person's ability to exaggerate his

[00:15:58] expressions, someone like Wadi Weli would have been a better fit in place of Yogi Babu.

[00:16:04] And the third thing that I found problematic was a certain things that Basil was made to do and

[00:16:11] say in the film. There is this tigerbomb scene that Swati had mentioned, that particular scene

[00:16:18] where Basil is getting angry with his younger brother, his mother and father is there. And

[00:16:23] there he uses an expletive, an unpalamentary, a swear word to describe his brother. It

[00:16:31] essentially says that he's calling his brother and it essentially says that he's calling his

[00:16:39] own brother, but he's calling his father a dog essentially. And his father is there. And that

[00:16:43] scene sort of evoked laughter in the theatre and that I thought was problematic, that I

[00:16:49] thought should be something that should be discouraged. I mean there was a time when

[00:16:53] Mohanlal used to make this thing very cool, that they'd be calling their friends

[00:16:58] fathers, he made it pretty cool during the 80s and the early 90s. But then after that

[00:17:04] it sort of pitted out. The heroes don't use such language because it was considered not just

[00:17:10] politically incorrect but it was also considered crude. I think you don't have to be

[00:17:15] crude to be funny. And this was something that I've never heard in Mariyalam Sivagam,

[00:17:22] where a son calls a father dog right in front of his father and he's not even

[00:17:26] apologetic about it. The character is not even apologetic about it. I found it disturbing.

[00:17:30] And the other one was Basil slapping his co-worker, his colleague, not even his friend.

[00:17:37] That was very Tamil and that was unnecessarily over the top. That was cruelly over the top.

[00:17:41] These two things shouldn't happen in a Mariyalam Sivagam. I didn't like that.

[00:17:44] One thing I found a little bit odd about the movie is the fact that how easily towards the

[00:17:51] end Purtraj gets convinced. He's shown as a very narcissistic or self-centered man.

[00:17:57] But until that point, he's just very strong on what he wants and the things he sees.

[00:18:02] He doesn't change his point of view at any point of the movie. But because they had to

[00:18:07] end the movie, he suddenly gets convinced. He suddenly starts behaving nicely. That one

[00:18:12] part was really odd to me because just to end a movie, somebody says something and okay,

[00:18:20] he's like, okay, I'm convinced. That doesn't work like that.

[00:18:23] And also, there is a certain sense of all, like I've mentioned this before, but

[00:18:28] all women characters, they are overshadowed by the men in their lives in this movie.

[00:18:34] The fact that Anashwara, if she likes Basil or not, or if this Purtraj's wife,

[00:18:39] is she really okay being an ass's wife? We don't really get to know. We have never been

[00:18:46] exposed to that side. That is just not shown in the movie. Those two things are the odd

[00:18:51] things that I found about the movie. So, you know, it's a happy film to make

[00:18:55] family audience happy. And how far does the film do justice to the cinematic aesthetics

[00:19:02] is for the audience to answer. So, that brings us to the end of this episode. Thanks

[00:19:07] for listening to Start Action Cut, produced and hosted by me, Padma Kumar, with technical

[00:19:14] production by Idea Brew Studios. Follow www.honmanorama.com for more podcasts on movies

[00:19:22] and be sure to come back for the next episode of Start Action Cut. That will be out on the

[00:19:28] next Monday. Thank you.