Notebook - The Review

Udyananu Tharam was Roshshaan Andrews' debut in Malayalam cinema. The story of the trials and tribulations of an aspiring film director was beautifully brought out by Roshshaan and Sreenivasan's sharp script poking fun at the Malayalam film industry helped the move in a becoming a monster hit. The movie brought Roshshaan into the limelight and huge hopes were pinned on him when he announced his next movie Notebook. Contrary to the flow prevalent in any movie industry to sustain his market with formulaic movies, Roshshaan dared to experiment. The theme was totally novel and the cast were all new and young.Notebook starts with the midnight mass on New Years Eve at a posh Ooty school. Three girls jump the mass and escape the principal's roving eyes to plant a sapling in the school to mark their friendship. The trio Saira, Sree and Anna are best friends. Saira, the blodest and liveliest amongst the three, comes from a broken family - mom (Aishwarya) is a busy doctor in Bombay. Dad (Suresh Gopi) is an army man. Sree comes from a loving family (mother Sukanya). Thesegirls help each other in the time of need - an example being when Saira persuades classmate Suraj to buy sanitary napkins when Sree has "chums". The confused look on Suraj's face when he is asked to buy the napkins is quite funny. Another of their classmates is Feroze, the buddding musical genius - who is a poor student otherwise. Feroze is accused of copying in exams and the principal, (aptly nicknamed Dracula) , dismisses him from the School. Meanwhile Suraj falls in love with Sree and their relationship reaches a new level when he gets Sree pregnant. The girls are totally flummoxed as to how to confont this problem. Things start moving at a fast pace from then on.Notebook dwells on the problems faced by today's teenagers and how they try to tackle problems by themselves when all it requires is an understanding parent to step in. It emphasizes the need for sex education at school. (For us malayalis, it is sad that sex is synonymous only with Shakeela.). The movie conveys a strong message that children do need to open up with their parents and discuss their problems. Notebook also conveys the hypocrisy of convent schools who go to any extent to have their names untarnished. (Having studied in a convent school myself, I have seen several instances where this sort of hypocrisy hashappened).The script by Bobby-Sanjay is quite good. Saira is easily the best of the three and has delivered a superb performance considering that shes a debutante. She conveys a lot through her expressive eyes. Suresh Gopi steals the scene at the climax.All the songs are of a high quality. Majo Joseph, another debutant (he also comes as Feroze in the movie), has come up with the perfect music for the movie. The "As you all know" song reminds you of 'Barbie Girl' song from Aqua. The other melodious song "Hridayavum" is also brilliant. Some of the songs are picturised similar to the "Ennum orkkunvo" song in Udayaanu Thaaram.Overall Notebook is a beautiful movie and conevys a strong message to the teenagers and their parents. It is unfair to compare it with Udyaananu Thaaram as both are as different as chalk and cheese. Way to go Roshshaan!