By Dr. Ampat Koshy
Scripted, Produced, and Directed by Brothers Babusenan or the 'Darker' (as apposite to Dagar) Brothers.
I had watched Painted House 1 and written a review of what was right and wrong with it, according to me. I am happy to watch its sequel, though that is probably not the right word for it.
The Painted House could also mean the house splashed with paint which is more like it.
This house could be reminiscent of the Golden Womb or the void into which God spoke and everything (the paint) came into existence.
The movie is called a spiritual thriller. It has in it a girl called Maya but it is also about Maya. I too have a story about a Maya and so did Irving Stone.
It starts with a quote from the Bhagavatham about how easily Naradan is taken in by Maya despite feeling that he won't be taken in by it after wanting to learn what it is from Krishna.
To understand the beginning more one has to have read Glass Bead Game's ending which has three stories and one is about the nature of reality and illusion according to Hesse's understanding of India, Hinduism, and other things like spirituality and religion.
Naturally, therefore, the character is called Siddharth or Siddhu, referencing Hesse again. But let me call him Sid as an offbeat tribute to Syd Barrett and Sid Vicious, both not connected, though Sid looks a bit like Syd Barrett.
And Gautama Buddha.
Siddharth has invented a dream machine that will bring happiness to all with no side effects and no addiction. The new drug that will be a hit or so he thinks. He is an idealist. He thinks he is going to do mankind a favour with his invention dealing with the mind, psychoanalysis, hypnosis and virtuality and other new fangled things he is obviously deeply impressed by and thinks the world of and is totally into.
He wants to sell his machine to a big company and make money and take the girl he loves, Maya, wherever she wants to, to do whatever they like together, to enjoy the rest of their life together. It is a case of 'true' love. She wants a baby, but he does not. Is it true love?
He goes to the studio to do some final fine-tuning on his machine but a stranger intrudes to get his codes with a knife and ends up getting killed by Siddhu trying to save his own life and invention. The stranger has been sent by the buyer who sees the machine can be used for other possibilities Sid doesn't want it used for or doesn't know about, to build a Multimedia Multiplayer Online Virtual and Augmented Reality Game like no other before where one can not only enter and control one's own dreams but others' dreams too. Sid calls his friend Hari who promises to help him get rid of the body.
The buyer now sends a goon called Victor (lol, again aptly named as he is a total fucking loser as most Xtians are these days and lost and a villain) to Maya to get her, to coerce Siddharth into capitulating.
But Maya escapes with the help of Siddharth and they wander TVPM but surprisingly get a call on Sid's new sim from an old man who says he will help them out of trouble by waking Sid up from his dream. Sid refuses thinking the old man who claims to have been sent by his father is mad.
The two on the run go to a Teena for help but the goon arrives there too. Sid and Maya escape after knocking him out and taking his gun. They go to Hari's house. The rest of the story needs to be seen to be believed.
The movie ends with a talk with the old man where Sid tells him that he sought happiness for himself and all and the result was sorrow for himself and many. The old man laughs and tells him that the real problem is that instead of looking at oneself and seeing what is there inside which may be what we don't like seeing we start playing a role to hide it to ourselves and others and that is Maya as is the search for happiness and that will cease once we stop caring what others think of us and know who we are and accept it.
This ties in with the Hamlet quote in the movie from Shakespeare that can be paraphrased as we all have a face but prepare another.
Apart from the movie's truth which few will grasp, unless they have been enlightened by the Holy Spirit, the movie is perfect in direction, editing and camera work, in its music, dialogues, and pretty near everything except in the acting which is sometimes flawed but the casting is excellent. It harks back to the first movie in the scene of the deserted chair on the beach and the old man who is an 'enlightener', a nomad who is like the avadhoots, in a new guise with a mobile phone, and reminds us of the unenlightened one in the first movie. The ending is perfect as Siddharth himself vanishes with no attempt at revenge or trying to undo the harm his dream machine can cause by having fallen into the wrong hands, saying the old man may be right, after all and that he doesn't know. He has started on his/the real journey to wisdom by admitting he does not know.
Unlike Painted House 1 I am unable to find anything to criticize here and give this gentler, milder, subtler movie with suggestive touches rather than explanatory notes and gestures to lead one to the depths, that is thereby taut, and one that I could not stop watching for even a second a 4.5/5 stars. The story, plot, characterization, themes, and point of view are all perfectly handled here.
People talk of Adoor, Aravindan, Padmakumar, Padmarajan, Shaji Karun, IV Sasi, the director of Adaminte Variyellu K G George, the director of Mani Muzhakkam, Bakkar, Don Palathara, the director of Ponthan Mada (TV Chandran), Shyama Prasad for his TV movie Uyarthezhunelpu or of Chemmeen or P Baskaran, and several others, when talking of Malayalam art film. But for me, its finest offering so far is arguably this movie as it has a beauty that is like that of a single rose flower, perfect and slight and full of softness, colours, and fragrance in all its nuances and grooves and not without its metaphysical thorns for the discerning eye.
The absence of the North of Kerala is noteworthy. The influence of Adam and Eve's myth and Tarkovsky or Parajanov is woven in more subtly here as is that of Zoltan Fabri. Lovely!
Thanks, dear Santosh Babusenan and Satish Babusenan
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