CHARACTER SKETCHES - 1

CHARACTER SKETCHES

M.D.SHYAMA [Kannathil Muthamittal - 2002]

     Mankulam Devanathan Shyama is yet another naive woman creating an impact on the masses, crafted intricately by the maestro himself, Mani Ratnam. 

     Born into a beautiful country that is dragged into the clutches of dirty politics, her love for her country, and her roots don't find disparity, which is evident from a scene depicting a conversation between her and her husband, listing her likes on the riverbanks, she picks up a handful of mud from the bank. She smears them on his face which screams that her patriotism has no measure.

     We could paint a picture of her as an unapologetic mother during the pre-interval and early post-interval sequences. That is because she made her priority of being a devoted wife and staunch towards her husband's ideologies, first. She wanted a happy family in the first place. When Dileepan (her husband), expressed his predilection of having a family only in the warless ambience in their country, she happily accepts it.

     Not too much time was left for them to exchange words after that conversation as Dileepan makes his way into the woods, to retaliate the Army, as his smallest contribution to his motherland, yet his biggest aspiration, and is believed to have done his part for this life.

    On the other hand, Shyama not only waits for him, but also cries to return to her place, hoping for Dileepan's return, on her voyage to Rameswaram for refuge, even leaving her new-born.

     We cannot interpret her as a heartless mother. Even years later, at the Eelam camp, she sees all her mentees as her own children. Her denial to meet her biological daughter, Amudha can be understood that she's too weak in the inside to gather up all her courage to meet the root of her mission.

    As the movie accelerates to the climax, all her true mental construct is revealed. She was a self-made warrior, took her husband's mission as her own and made her ready for the battle. She even left her daughter, the family that she had always fascinated; tries to hold back her tears and her urge to embrace her own girl. But all her concrete walls of stubbornness shatters once she reconciles with Amudha.

    Every pair of eyes that witnessed the epitome point of the movie would be tear stricken throughout the conversation leading the climax. AR Rahman's BGM and Harini's humming, though seems breezy, are only intensive lachrymal.

     With every question Amudha puts forward, our throat gets lumped. Despite this, Shyama answers those arrows of a question with simple meaning that would reach a 9-year old's discernment. When inconsolable Amudha pleads her to come with her to Chennai, where she lists out the contrast of environment between Sri Lanka and Chennai, Shyama reveals the reason behind her staunch obstinacy. She assures Amudha should return to her when there is peace flourished in her island, pronouncing the exact words of Dileepan.

     The yearning, the longing, the fear of not accomplishing Dileepan's wish, the love for her daughter, everything that tempests her, stops her for a second in the midway of returning back once Amudha addresses her, 'Amma'. She completely breaks down yet chooses to return with a heavy heart that has fought many battles within these few minutes than her country.

     At the end, she had finally succeeded to touch Amudha where she had failed for the first time at the Refugee' Camp. She takes with her Amudha's album and also the faceprint of Amudha in her bandaided palms with hopes of recognising it again. She finally breaks into the rain as Amudha and her family watches her. The downpour is the metaphorical representation of the audience's tears watching those conversation.

                 

    She could be interpreted as an idealistic mother, who wants her child to live in a place that is a garden of peace flowers and where the rays of the Sun embarks the end of cold violence.

- Anisha K