In America

  Niya turned ten. Still remember her just born face looking around as I held her for the first time in a white towel wrap in Thalassery hospital. Now, she is ten and at times shows better maturity than her parents. Her idea of a birthday party was a game arcade with all her friends. So that is what we did - at Johns' Incredible Pizza, Newark.      We had invited  our neighbors , couple of my college mates(Abil,Shaji) and a couple of  family friends(Amruth & Anjana, Sajna & Arun) . Niya's best friend from school- Disha came in as well with her father. Everyone came in to a full party. I had left home early, to first get the  birthday cake and then setup the return gifts etc at the hall. When I reached John's, mine was the only car.  Had to wait till about ten minutes after ten to have the door opened. Felt very special to be early for the event. Spoke to one of the hosts(Johns) and walked down the return gifts from the car to the host in...

`While Mammootty just becomes Amudhan, the father, Sadhana astonishes us as the spastic child.  Through the last few months of waiting, from the trailers, the impression was that the spastic child in the trailer was actually a spastic child. Not one moment where the real Sadhana flickers through. Always Paapa, the character.  While Amudhan is always playing the caretaker role,  carrying the responsibility of raising his spastic child, one chapter is devoted to Amudhan and his tribulations. That was the chapter where Mammootty stood up and declared that he is indeed world class, the best of the best. Performance reminiscent of Amaram, and perhaps even better. There are other magical strokes too that come through at various points as would from an honest,  realistic narrative of a storyline centered around being a spastic child and raising a spastic child.  It is however also true that the admiration for Mammootty meant that you could never only see Am...