Love's journey

Watched a Malayalam movie recently. I generally do not watch movies taken in any different language other than the ones I know. But this one had good English subtitles! :-)

The movie was "Pranayam". It was a movie about three people, who in their twilight years, happen to experience a rare sort of happiness.

Well, the story starts with Anupam Kher's family and a father and son relationship. Anupam, known as Achutha Menon in this movie, has come over to his son's home in Ernakulam to recover from a recent heart attack. His daughter-in-law, a working woman, juggles around with a job, a teenage daughter, and an old father-in-law. Menon's son, who works in one of the Gulf countries, tries calling up from time to time to soothe the fraying nerves of his wife. The family lives in an apartment overlooking the beach in Ernakulam.

The story takes an interesting turn in the apartment lift when Achutha Menon watches a middle-aged woman Grace (Jayapradha) walking into it with her grand-daughter. The aged couple greet each other with a courteous "Hello" and at that moment, they freeze in shock. Neither one utters a word. And when Grace walks out of the lift at her floor, Menon falls down inside the lift due to yet another heart attack. Grace rushes him to the nearby hospital and does the needed to get him admitted. When asked for Menon's personal details such as age and house name, Grace flourishes them without even thinking twice. Which leaves us wondering about who she is and how she is related to Menon.

When Menon's daughter-in-law questions Grace's knowledge about Menon's personal details, Grace tells her that she is Menon's ex-wife and her husband's mother...

A little flashback then takes us back into Menon's and Grace's twenties when they fall in love and marry without their parents' approvals. Though both of them belong to different faiths, they stay put that way and become young parents to a son too. But such relationships need a lot of conviction and attention to survive. With small and trivial skirmishes, the couple separate from each other and Grace's parents play some ploys to split the couple apart. As a result, Menon gets away from his hometown and travels to the Northern states with his little son and Grace stays back and gets married again.

There is a third person who gets into the story now. Grace's husband - Mathews (Mohanlal).
Mathews is ailing from a paralysis stroke and a non-functional hand and leg. Grace takes care of Mathews and his needs and the couple live with their daughter's family.

After seeing Menon again, Grace is disturbed. She is transported back to the marital life they led together and the love they once shared. She is doubly disturbed when she learns that Menon never married again and that he had single-handedly brought up their son.

Menon is discharged from the hospital and comes back home, eager to meet Grace again. Until the moment Menon met Grace, he just wanted to get back to his house in his hometown. But then, he changes his mind after seeing Grace. Menon's son, who flies in from Dubai, does not like Grace coming back into their lives. He still harbors resentment towards his mother, who divorced his father and left him when he was a kid. But he never knew the truth about Grace's parents having played a role in his parent's separation. Nor did he know that his father was equally to blame for letting his ego play a part in messing up his marriage.

Grace's mind is at a turmoil when she comes to know about her son's resentment towards her. Her only solace is in Mathew's soothing words. But how does Mathews deal with this turmoil, and with Menon peeking back into Grace's life again?

Mathews handles the strife in Grace's mind with a lot of objectivity. Whenever Grace becomes a little too moody, thinking about Menon, Mathews handles her thoughts in a philosophical manner. He lets her know that it is only natural to feel certain emotions when someone meets the "ex" and the emotions are just to be left as-is without mulling over them too much. And when Grace's daughter and son-in-law lash out at her, accusing Grace of not telling them that she was married earlier and had a son too, it is Mathews who admonishes them and asks them to mind their own lives and not to interfere in theirs. The kind of maturity shown by Mathews, the love and affection he showers upon Grace, and the way he playfully needles her at been distracted from telling her prayers at night and kissing him good night reveal the powerful portrayal of a very sensitive and loving husband and the exemplary acting of Mohanlal.

Contrary to our conclusions that animosity is sure to spew between Menon and Mathews, the two of them shake hands with each other with respect. They chat up instantly with one another and share interesting episodes of their lives. Of course, a common interest to both of them is Grace...

Menon, at one such occasion, tells Mathews that he is jealous of him as he is loved so much by Grace. He witnesses the love and affection passing between the two and in his eyes, we see him longing for the kind of love that he knew for sure he had lost.

The children of both Menon and Mathews do not like the way the trio spend time with one another. Grace's daughter accuses Grace of being a Panchali as she thinks her mother wants to spend time with both her husbands. Mathews rushes to Grace's defense and takes his ire on his daughter. He consoles his wife late in the night saying that the younger generation cannot see relationships beyond the cloak of sex, and which is why they are unable to understand that relationships can blossom beyond the body too.

Frustrated that their own children do not understand the platonic nature of the relationship, the trio then plan a secret getaway across Kerala without informing their children. They go to places they love, breathe in the beaches, sing in the hotels, and talk all about their lives and experiences. During one such evening, Mathews ends up having one more severe stroke, after which he is admitted to the hospital. During this time, Mathews tells Grace and Menon that if in case he does not recover from the stroke, he would want Grace and Menon to live together and to take care of each other. A beautiful dialog captured with such sensitivity that you have no other option but just to cry.

What happens after that? Do Grace and Menon get the chance to live together again? Or does Mathews recover to resume life with his beloved?

When we keep wondering about what would happen, Grace dies...

A massive heart attack in the attendant's room. She dies after hugging Menon one last time when she is taken aback by a thunder bolt.

A sad twist indeed when we wonder if fate will smile at Menon again. But would Menon really smile if Mathews had died? Does one ending always bring about another happy beginning? What would have Grace gone through if Mathews had died and she was given a chance to provide companionship to Menon again? Would she have stepped in as Menon's companion? If she had, would guilt also have played a part in her providing companionship and solace to Menon? Can any relationship created out of obligation and guilt be a fulfilling one? And can the society ever understand any relationship that is formed in the twilight years of life? Or, would Grace mourn Mathew's absence from her life and keep away from Menon too?

We have answers to some questions and we don't have answers to many. Our answers might be a reflection of who we are. There are no rights and wrongs in relationships. The heart decides the fate of any relationship. Hence, the director did not take a chance. He must have loved the character of Grace so much that he let her die. A typical ending to a non-typical relationship.

While we keep pondering about the turn of events steered only by tears, the two men visit the graveyard together and lay down a bunch of flowers for Grace. A butterfly hovers over Grace's grave and kisses Mathews' heart. Menon smiles at Mathews with a silent salute to Grace's and Mathew's love and wheels Mathew's chair away.

An extraordinary friendship between two men who were united by the love of one graceful woman.

Watch this movie to experience the sensitive story line, to watch the emotions of love, maturity, forgiveness, and gratitude flit across the faces of Mathews, Grace, and Menon, to witness life and love in its glory at its twilight years...

Hats off to the director who has weaved magic with Pranayam and to Jayapradha, Anupam Kher, and Mohanlal who have proved that their acting is evergreen.