Other artists who acted in the film were Adoor Bhasi, Muthukulam Raghavan Pillai, Govindankutty, Khadeeja and others. Kamaladevi and Vidhubala were “new faces” at the time. Sathyan, Kamaladevi, Aranmula Ponnamma and Vidhubala were assigned with the corresponding roles in the Malayalam remake. Nagiah, Kumari, Parvathi Bai and T Suryakumari were cast in important roles in the Telugu classic and the film is counted among one of the best of these legendary stars. Some film critics attribute the film’s failure to the lack of “artistic and technical brilliance” and improper star cast. Thomas, the Malayalam remake failed to impress the audience and flopped. Produced by ‘Movie Masters’ and directed by P.A. Malayalam film Pavappettaval released on Octowas a remake of the Telugu classic film. Exhibited in various film festivals, the film was praised in popular magazines by critics. Reddy’s black and white classic Telugu film Devata (1941) is a best example for this.
(For viewers outside the Indian subcontinent, the film is available online at a premium rate.Even if the story is simple and artistic, technical brilliance can bring unusual success for a film. Overall, ‘Leela’ is one of those inconclusive movies that provoke disturbing questions about the vulnerabilities of man’s natural instincts and is also an attempt to mock the average Malayali’s hypocritical moral values and ethics. Parvathy Nambiar does a decent job as ‘Leela’, considering that she has to maintain a dead face with hopeless eyes throughout her shots. Indrans, meanwhile has nothing much to prove after his much appraised role in ‘Munroe thuruth’, essaying his role ‘Dasappan’ with ease. Vijayaraghavan also shines as ‘Pillechan’ with his perfect body language and gestures of an introverted old man while for Jagadeesh, the role of ‘Thankappan’ will be one to be proud of, in his recent career studded with stereotypical buffoon roles. The director explored the versatility of Biju Menon by handing him complex situations that are comparable with Mohanlal’s role in ‘Thoovanathumbikal’. Menon looked good inside his comfort zone of light humour and instinctive dialogue delivery.
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Renjith has used his actors to full effect especially Biju Menon who handles the main character. The climax is one pivotal move that reassures the truth that the power of nature is beyond man’s imagination and even a slight change in its behaviour can ruin all the plans and dreams that men weave, irrespective of their motives. The close up shots of an elephant and Kuttiyappan in the climax reminded of the imposing shots of similar kind from the critically acclaimed French movie ‘Dheepan’. The director has managed to visualise the climax sequences without losing the much-needed severity that the script demanded, over shadowing the limitations he must have faced until then in visualizing the original story.
The excessive use of leftist symbols and images and the inclusion of a delusional angel to add surrealism were distractions while chasing the real Kuttiyappan on screen. The conversations between Kuttiyappan and Dasappan (Indrans), a pimp, has glimpses of subdued dark humour. There is a lack of sharpness in dialogues to evoke the ambiguous nature of the movie, which the script writer did dexterously well in Venu’s ‘Munnarayippu’. Unni R, who wrote the screenplay, doesn’t seem comfortable in converting his own story while attempting to find the cinematic scope in it.
The viewer is never let off from the hook of curiosity once Kuttiyappan with his friend ‘Pillechan’(Vijayaraghavan) ventures out to find an elephant and a girl to quench one of his insane cravings, revealed only at the climax.