It is often considered both cruel and somewhat naive to compare an original text with its movie adaptation, but in this case, that crime can be committed since the entire premise of Zee5's Malayalam web series Manorathangal is to celebrate the writing of M.T. Vasudevan Nair.
In that spirit, Ranjith's Kadugannava: Oru Yathra Kurippu, starring Mammootty in the lead, remains a hastily jotted-down travel note of the original short story. It seems like director Ranjith cannot be blamed entirely, as the duration constraints set for each episode must have clouded his decision-making. When journalist Venugopal (Mammootty in the film) waits inside the flight from Madras (Chennai) to Colombo, MT uses the waiting time to introduce his character and draw a vivid sociopolitical picture of Sri Lanka.
However, in a rushed effort, Ranjith misses this chance and chooses to impart only limited details about his lead character to the viewers. Ranjith's 1994 Colombo appears far removed from MT's war-torn Colombo, where only months ago, President Ranasinghe Premadasa was assassinated by a suicide bomber. MT portrays Colombo under the tight grip of the Lankan army as a reason for Venugopal's anxiety, which only dissipates when he finds someone waiting, holding a plaque with his name on it.
However, Ranjith fails to establish that Venugopal, once a maverick journalist and wanderlust, now aged, feels like a vulnerable man with anxiety and other issues. When Ranjith's Venugopal, standing on the balco.