Writer: Cheriyan Kalpakavadi
Cast: Mohanlal, Shobana, Shantikrishna, Thilakan, Innocent
Language: Malayalam
Balachandran (Mohanlal) had to sacrifice his childhood love (Shobana), to marry into a rich family who only wanted his IAS status, in order to save his poor family. He lives a life of regret and despair even as his father-in-law (Thilakan) uses him to get over the bureaucratic hurdles.
The film is a simple love story which doesn't take the usual cinematic path. It is a failed love where they sacrificed their relation for the family and when they meet again after ten years, it again takes the same path. It is different in the sense that we don't usually get a mature midlife crisis film in Malayalam. I has seen it more than fifteen years back and on re watch it is not as good as I thought it was. It relies too much on coincidences and one particular character taking a an uncharacteristic and unexplained u-turn which is not at all credible. Still it is a very good watch largely because of the good cast and different treatment to an age-old story.
It is interesting that Pavithram, which also came out in 1994, had Mohanlal and Shobana playing a not too dissimilar couple in a similar storyline even though that relationship is not central to the story. I always used to rate Pakshe as the better film out of the two but I might have to change that if I see Pavithram again. Thilakan-Mohanlal is one of the best father-son duo in Malayalam cinema and in most of their most famous roles they are usually at loggerheads. In Pakshe also it is no different but there is a minor difference with Thilakan playing Mohanlal's father in law. When I checked the poster for Pakshe I got the DVD cover which had Mohanlal and Shobana from 'Manichithrathazhu' in it. It reminded me of the DVD cover of the film 'Mudra' with Mammootty posing with an aimed revolver sporting a sun-glass no less. Talk about misleading viewers.
Rating: 3/5
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