Spirit (2012) - A reflection into an elitist's life

 "A Ranjith Cinema"

Spirit is not just another film from Mohanlal; it’s an introspective journey into the struggles of a man battling his own inner demons while critiquing the alcohol culture that plagues society. With Ranjith’s direction blending sharp wit and social commentary, "Spirit" delivers a compelling narrative that makes you question, laugh, and reflect. Is this just another attempt at social reform, or does it dig deeper into human complexities? A take on why Spirit remains a conversation starter even today.

Director	Writer	Release Date	Genre
Ranjith	Ranjith	14 June 2012	🎭 Satirical 🖤 Black Comedy

Random Musings

Ranjith's Cinema and me, we have a particular love story. Screenplay writers have that magic in them to craft stories that strike a chord with the commoner and Ranjith's scripts are no different. 

From old-school comedy flicks like Pradeshika Varthakal, to revenge flicks like Mayamayooram, to male ego celebrations like Ravanaprabhu, to simple stories like Kadal Kadannoru Mathukutty, this man has it all in his hands. We are more likely, the gracious benefactors of a master storyteller like Ranjith. I have a philosopher's mindset myself and don't mind the intellectual overload.

I think it's well known that Ranjith has

Spirit, where do I start? 

Into the world of Spirit

This film is a window overlooking the disorderly life of Reghunandan, an elitist, with a temeperament to match. A man of taste in music, poetry and a raging addiction to alcohol to match the range. He is pretty much a well made man and hosts a show on Television named 'Show the Spirit', which has a great following among his well wishers.

He is a man who once had everything in life and now is drowning in the absence of it all. A loving family, a partner etc being shortcomings and is a walking subject that invokes empathy for those around him, which unfortunately, he does not realize or does not acknowledge . It's often common to see warriors failing in life, because of situations beyond their control and then take to their vices, to combat the pain and suffering

Reghunandan takes to alcohol and cigarettes in this story, to combat every situation and is willing to pay top bucks for the same, as evidenced by a scene at the bar with Tini Tom. 

Another such scene at the bar invoked a dialogue, which goes like 'this is the state, where the chairman of the Anti-Liquor Movement passed by Liver Cirrochis'.

I think these dialogues would be enough for Ranjith's critics for spewing his ideologies and thoughts through his films. However, as a reviewer, without any bias, these are insightful. 

Whatever be the situation, Reghunandan has something up his tongue to justify drinking and uses drinking as a coping mechanism to handle situations. Thus goes on the story, as he drowns in his vodka infused misery, with the death of a close friend and certain situations making him wake up from his stupor. The situations that happen later just served as a false wake up call for the audience's wishes for Raghu leading a reformed life. However, the ambuiguity of the climax was not satisfying and I’m no one to argue against a writer's liberty

Thoughts

• Mohanlal's kurtas and shirts were looking chic throughout the movie and props to the costume designer for the same.

• The Landline mod concept that Raghunandan uses was pretty unique and i wanted to emulate that, 12 years on. Got a couple of knockoffs off Flipkart that were'nt looking like the right thing and eventually dropped the idea, after carrying it around for a week

• Ranjith's method of handling the subject of Alcohol Addiction and it's by conditions in Kerala was pretty well executed, with Nandu, Kalpana and Govindankutty handling their roles pretty well. Some shots showing the down trodden conditions of Maniyan's (character played by Nandu) whereabouts were well handled by master cinematographer Venu ISC. The situations surrounfing the narrative, such as adultery and child abuse were subtle and did pull on my heartstrings 

• This movie had a wonderful supporting cast who did their roles well. I think im reiterating the point above (xD), but it did leave me satisfied with the thought,that no performabce efforts went to vain

• Mohanlal knows how to wonderfully pull off alcoholic characters, as seen previously in the half-baked Ayal Kadhaezhuthukayanu (1998) and Hallo (2007). This was a character that required a nuanced requirement from A10 to handle the role and it was done pretty well.

• Kerala will probably never move on from it's love of alcohol, as seen from record sales collections across festivities such as Onam and Christmas. We have developed a stereotype for ourselves being tipplers and marking any reason for celebration with a bottle. I hope that this movie will be well received in the future, as a great PSA to combat alcohol abuse and addition. Akin to awareness of LSD in 'Cheriya Lokavum Valiya Manushyarum' (1990) and Vellam (2021)

• Spirit had a wonderful soundtrack, with Shahbaz Aman's mastery and Rafeeq Ahmed's lyrical artistry churning out tracks like 'Ee Chilayil' and 'Mazhakondu Mathram'. There's a dark song as well, which wont make for happy listening. It's titled 'Maranamethunna Nerath'.

• Posters of this movie are pretty great to look at and were designed by OldMonks.

Random Facts

• Lalettan / A10 teamed up with Ranjith, after a gap of 5 years following the failiure of their last colllaboration 'Rock n' Roll', a musical entertainer. Though the movie was meh, it has one of Vidyasagar's best soundtracks

• Prakash Raj was supposed to play the role of Alexey, eventually taken on by Shankar Ramakrishnan, who made his debut in this film

Parting Thoughts

Flicks like Chandrolsavam, Pranchiyettan etc. that were penned by Ranjith, have struck a particular chord with me. The way in which the small nuances and intricate molding of the character have been expressed, to emotionally connect with the audience requires much effort to pull off. They make for wonderful comfort movies and Spirit wonderfully falls into that list.

External Reference

My Reddit Thread discussing the movie

~Noel