'Cheppu'- A movie for every student

Its been a long time since i posted something here and my friends been asking me to do it. And i was thinking on what to write. I was really in a bad mood after watching the new bond film first day itself, with my dear friends. It was such a damp squib of a movie, enough to dampen your high spirits. And the new bond guy Daniel Craigis an utter waste. The usual bond stuff were also missing, the suave looks of mr.bond and the usual steamy scenes were also missing[i think the guys at theatre cut out thosee....grrrrrrrrrr]..Ok, so now am back at my home and crying over the lost money. I switched on the TV and was just surfing through the channels and in asianet plus i saw my favourite actor Mohanlal. I was sure this was one movie which i havn't watched until now. The movie's name is ''Cheppu'', directed by Priyadarsan. I was planning to switch off after watching for a short time. But then it was late. I got really interested in the movie.

The story is woven around a college campus of the late 80's. Mohanlal plays the role of a lecturer. He is a righteous man and always raises his voice when he sees injustice. As I was watching the movie, I was astonished to find that the campus and the happenings had a close resemblance to my own college. The college party leaders , the 'chota netas', the spoilt kids of influential and rich people, the poor kids who come to college with the sole aim of studying and earning a good job so that they could bring prosperity to their poor household, the carefree guys who doesn't give a thought to the things around them ...u could find all of them there. Then there is the bloody campus politics, the unwanted strikes and violence. The lecturers waiting ,as eagerly as the students, for a strike so that they can attend their domestic jobs really made me laugh because i have seen that for real in my own college. The greedy nature of some of them who see teaching as a business to churn out money is also depicted in the movie.

The party leaders involve themselves in all kinds of atrocious activities in college. Still no one dares to raise their voices against them. Even those who were victims prefer to keep their mouth shut. And those who do dare to challenge them are dealt with cruelly. And when the main protagonist, played by Lal, takes a strong stand against them, the college management and others refuse to support him, because they also fear about their own life and livelihood. The picture of the principle blaming the lecturer instead of the real wrong doers[the party guys] was just like a scene out of our own college. There was another scene of the lecturers helping the student leaders during the exams by allowing them to do mass copying and even giving them the answers written in a piece of paper[as u all know, these things are still happening in some of the colleges here]. Its really amazing that a film made in the late 80's could reflect the present picture in our campuses in such a startling manner. This tells us that inspite of all the talk about changing times and all, we still haven't succeeded in wiping out certain evils from our campuses.

The film tells us how so many promising lives are ruined because of campus politics. The trouble makers won't realise it was all worthless until its all over. The movie was also a pointer to the helplessness of the laws of our country. Even if everyone knows who the culprit is, no one can touch him if there's no proof. The police can do nothing even if they want to beacuse their hands are tied behind by those in power. The climax also has a touch of reality with the righteous lecturer succumbing to the swords of the villanious student leaders and then a good student turning into a violent killing machine...those are the prices we have to pay for allowing
politics in campuses.. The film ends by asking to the viewer a question- ''is politics a necessity in our campuses?". Its been really been a long time since we watched such socially relevant films in malayalam, save the odd one in an year which even finds it hard to get into the theatres. We need this kind of movies to save the malayalam film industry, which is now plagued with crap actors mouthing double meaning dilogues in the name of comedy.

This movie is a must watch for every student. I recommend this to my young brothers and sisters that they should watch this before starting their college life so that they would stay clear of the evils in college. I also recommend it to our college political leaders so that they would realise how meaningless this life of enmity and bloodspill is and also how beautiful a
harmonious life in campus is. Don't watch the new bond movie...save the money and rent the vcd or dvd of this simple movie devoid of gadgets and skimpy clad gals....

with love,
your crusader Praveen