Skip to main content

Idealistic longings of a comrade




Sakhavu (Comrade) is a recent Malayalam movie which tells the story of two Communists in Kerala, one belonging to the older generation while the other is a product of our very own times.  Krishnakumar is a left wing student leader with political ambitions.  He is selfish, cunning and manipulative – like most of our politicians.  He knows how to get out of people what he wants.  The end justifies the means for him.  And the end is nothing but self-aggrandisement.  Even when he is in a hospital to donate blood (which he was forced to do by his party), he is more interested in getting food and fruit juice from the patient’s people than donating blood.  He has no scruples about pocketing the money of another man whom he meets in the hospital and whom he had helped earlier with his political influence.  He fails to understand that the poor man was keeping the money for the medical needs of a hospitalised relative. 

The patient who is supposed to receive Krishnakumar’s blood (the rare O Negative group) is his exact reverse.  Krishnan – who is known as Sakhavu, Comrade – is an idealist who spent all his life for the poor and oppressed people.  He has been a personification of the ideals of Communism.  His idealism earned him many enemies one of whom attacked him which is why he is in hospital now. 

Both the roles are played remarkably well by young actor Nivin Pauly.  Krishnakumar learns Comrade Krishnan’s life story while waiting in the hospital and undergoes a personal transformation.  He decides to take on the old idealist’s mantle.

I watched the movie quite by chance because it was one of the Onam fares brought by a TV channel.  I decided to watch it especially because Kerala’s Chief Minister, Pinarayai Vijayan, had watched it when it was released and gave it his applause.  Yes, the movie deserves the applause.  But it left me wondering whether the kind of idealism portrayed in it will ever return to Indian politics. 

The cynicism of the student leader in the movie is the only visible reality in contemporary politics.  The movie left me longing for a politician with at least a semblance of idealism. 


Comments

  1. Nice review, best thing in your article is that, that all people understand with ease. Your article is always informative. Thank You Tomichan Matheikal for this amazing article.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Such a politician is hard to find in today's national scenario. All the same, I have not lost my faith in idealism and optimism. Hence I hope, sooner or later someone will definitely emerge on the scene with an air of idealism in his activities (not just in words). On one hand, we know very well that we always get the leaders we deserve; on the other one, it's also an eternal truth that an idealist may lose, the ideal doesn't.

    ReplyDelete
  3. "Both the roles are played remarkably well by young actor Nivin Pauly"- I didn't know this. Had missed this interesting movie( from the contents of your post).

    As for the ideal politician, perhaps the species is extinct. In any case in the old days also the crooked politicians existed and had their way which is why we are in this sorry state of affairs!

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

In this Wonderland

I didn’t write anything in the last few days. Nor did I feel any urge to write. I don’t know if this lack of interest to write is what’s called writer’s block. Or is it simple disenchantment with whatever is happening around me? We’re living in a time that offers much, too much, to writers. The whole world looks like a complex plot for a gigantic epic. The line between truth and fiction has disappeared. Mass murders have become no-news. Animals get more compassion than fellow human beings. Even their excreta are venerated! Folk tales are presented as scientific truths while scientific truths are sacrificed on the altar of political expediency. When the young generation in Nepal set fire to their Parliament and Supreme Court buildings, they were making an unmistakable statement: that they are sick of their political leaders and their systems. Is there any country whose leaders don’t sicken their citizens? I’m just wondering. Maybe, there are good leaders still left in a few coun...

Death as a Sculptor

Book Discussion An Introductory Note : This is not a book review but a reflection on one of the many themes in The Infatuations , novel by Javier Marias. If you have any intention of reading the novel, please be forewarned that this post contains spoilers. For my review of the book, without spoilers, read an earlier post: The Infatuations (2013). D eath can reshape the reality for the survivors of the departed. For example, a man’s death can entirely alter the lives of his surviving family members: his wife and children, particularly. That sounds like a cliché. Javier Marias’ novel, The Infatuations , shows us that death can alter a lot more; it can reshape meanings, relationships, and even morality of the people affected by the death. Miguel Deverne is killed by an abnormal man right in the beginning of the novel. It seems like an accidental killing. But it isn’t. There are more people than the apparently insane killer involved in the crime and there are motives which are di...

The Adventures of Toto as a comic strip

  'The Adventures of Toto' is an amusing story by Ruskin Bond. It is prescribed as a lesson in CBSE's English course for class 9. Maggie asked her students to do a project on some of the lessons and Femi George's work is what I would like to present here. Femi converted the story into a beautiful comic strip. Her work will speak for itself and let me present it below.  Femi George Student of Carmel Public School, Vazhakulam, Kerala Similar post: The Little Girl

When Cricket Becomes War

Illustration by Copilot Designer Why did India agree to play Pakistan at all if the animosity runs so deep that Indian players could not even extend the customary handshake: a simple ritual that embodies the very essence of sportsmanship? Cricket is not war, in the first place. When a nation turns a game into a war, it does not defeat its rival; it only wages war on its own culture, poisoning its acclaimed greatness. India which claims to be Viswaguru , the world’s Guru, is degenerating itself day after day with mounting hatred against everyone who is not Hindu. How can we forget what India did to a young cricket player named Mohammed Siraj , especially in this context? In the recent test series against England, India achieved an unexpected draw because of Siraj. 1113 balls and 23 wickets. He was instrumental in India’s series-levelling victory in the final Test at the Oval and was declared the Player of the Match. But India did not celebrate him. Instead, it mocked him for his o...

Whose Rama?

Book Review Title: Whose Rama? [Malayalam] Author: T S Syamkumar Publisher: D C Books, Kerala Pages: 352 Rama may be an incarnation of God Vishnu, but is he as noble a man [ Maryada Purushottam ] as he is projected to be by certain sections of Hindus? This is the theme of Dr Syamkumar’s book, written in Malayalam. There is no English translation available yet. Rama is a creation of the Brahmins, asserts the author of this book. The Ramayana upholds the unjust caste system created by Brahmins for their own wellbeing. Everyone else exists for the sake of the Brahmin wellbeing. If the Kshatriyas are given the role of rulers, it is only because the Brahmins need such men to fight and die for them. Valmiki’s Rama too upheld that unjust system merely because that was his Kshatriya-dharma, allotted by the Brahmins. One of the many evils that Valmiki’s Rama perpetrates heartlessly is the killing of Shambuka, a boy who belonged to a low caste but chose to become an ascetic. The...