This is the first movie review I
am penning. There have been
movies that have excited me,
made me cry and some movies
made me think. Of course there
were others that were easily forgotten and faded into
oblivion. Urumi is one movie that
made me not only think, it made
me aware; and probably that is
the reason I am wielding this
keyboard to write a review for it. The latest offering from
Santhosh Sivan, the multi-lingual
historic (or rather history
inspired) movie Urumi stands out
elegant with scintillating
performance by its cast, wonderful cinematography which
is a visual delight. The most
commendable thing about this
movie is it’ s poignant and subtle takeaway message, which stick
on to the audience’ s heart leaving them pondering on a
highly relevant question. The movie starts off with two
youngsters Prithviraj (P) and
Prabhu Deva who are best
buddies trying to lead a
happening life albeit
impoverished and debted. Life suddenly takes them on a
different route when an
international mining company
approaches Prithviraj with
interest on his ancestral
property. There is also a league of politicians who talk about
bringing development to the
small village in Kerala behind the
conglomerate. P and P come to Kerala, where
they bump into Vidya Balan, an
NGO activist who is managing P’ s hitertho uninformed property
on his mother’ s instruction. She informs P about his lineage that
is associated with the 100+ acre
property and urges him to think
twice before selling it off. P also
needs the signature of Genelia,
a mentally retarded girl who is the adopted daughter of P’ s mother. Nonetheless as with any
modern day youth, he resents
lineage and prefers to take
care of his monetary issues and
benefits. However on a visit to
his property he gets captured by local tribal and their leader – Tamil actor Arya, who asks him
about his ancestors, to which P
has no answer. Here begins the
flashback, Arya reads out the
history of his great ancestor. The core of the movie – the story of Vasco Da Gama’ s arrival as trader and later the
hoisting of the Portugal flag in
Malabar in the late 1400’ s takes shape. It is in this
segment the true heroes of the
movie appear. Kelu Nayanar,
played with grandeur by
Prithviraj, inspired by the
martyrdom of his dad – Arya (Again a sterling performance)
decides to take revenge for the
atrocities committed by Gama
and his army. P is ably assisted
by Vavvali, a Muslim youth
played by Prabhu Deva and Arakkal Ayesha, played by
Genelia with élan. Jagathy
Sreekumar comes across as a
power hungry, shrewd and
unscrupulous minister to the
King. The story revolves around the Golden Urumi (Translation:
Curling Blade; A long traditional
Kerala Ribbon like sword) made
with the gold ornaments of
women and children whom the
Portuguese butchered. This urumi stands out as the symbol
of Kelu’ s revenge. It survives centuries to be handed over to
the new age P who wakes up to
the importance of his lineage
and historical tradition and
decides not to sell the land,
leaving politicians and representatives of the Multi-
national mining company aghast. The repeat of actors in the new
age as a representation of their
roles donned in the 1400’ s story is the catalyst behind the
idea of sending out the social
message that people who had
unwittingly or ravenousness sold
our land to foreign powers exist
in this new era. Even though the movie is a commercial pot boiler
with comic tinge, romance, songs
and thrilling revenge, the
underlying message stands out
clear and loud gaping at the
audience. India was always the most
wanted jewel for conquerors
and invaders. She has been
plundered, looted, raped and
violated for selfish reasons of a
few power hungry, selfish natives. It took a Gandhi and
several courageous martyrs to
help us rise from the ashes of
slavery. Alas! We are living in the
age when history repeats!
Today they have come back as MNCs and global conglomerates
having interest in our soil,
water and all available
resources, including the much
demanded human resources.
Today in the name of globalisation and development
unscrupulous politicians and
businessmen sell our land and
it’ s tradition for power and money. We the people – you and I, take pride in living a
comfortable ‘ decent’ life, with the pay packets of MNCs. We
have forgotten our culture, our
land, the scent of our soil and
live in a fool’ s paradise. We have forgotten tradition, agriculture,
and instead dream about
providing luxury apartments for
our old parents. What pains me is that we don’ t know or even try and find out
who our ancestors are, they
may be someone whose
sacrifices might help you hold
your head in a pride that only
an Indian can boast of. Our great great great great
grandparents may have made a
mark in history that we and the
world may have conveniently
forgotten.
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