This post first appeared on Totally Filmi on March 29, 2019.
Rosshan Andrrews’ debut film, Udayananu Tharam, was amongst the films I fell in love with when I first started expanding my Malayalam film viewing beyond purely arthouse types of movies. A black comedy starring Mohanlal and Sreenivasan (who also wrote the script), the film went on to win two Kerala State Awards. For his second feature, Andrrews teamed up with writers Bobby-Sanjay (who would subsequently write most of Andrrews’ films). If Udayananu Tharam was a satirical commentary on the Malayalam film industry just at the turn of the 21st century – struggling to find its footing after its Golden Age – Note Book was a complete change of direction, a college-based coming of age film, not unlike Lal Jose’s Classmates from earlier the same year (a film that set the trend for college films in Malayalam cinema).
Whereas Classmates was a thriller with the college portions set in flashback, Note Book places its protagonists squarely in their school days. Sarah Elizabeth (Roma, in her film debut), Pooja Krishnan (Parvathy), and Sreedevi (Mariya Roy, also in her debut) are three students at the very disciplined Lord’s Academy school in Ooty. In contrast to the school’s discipline, the girls are shown as lively and somewhat mischievous – when we first meet them, they are skipping out on the end of the school’s New Year’s Eve programme (where a stern priest urges students to pray for world peace instead of celebrating like others are), in order to plant a tree that will grow with them at their time in the school – a tree they dedicate to Venus, the goddess of love.
The first half of the film is, surprisingly, fresh and lively, due in no small part to the relationship between the three friends. These girls look out for each other (when Sreedevi’s period suddenly comes on during a chemistry practical, her friends rush off to get pads to make sure she doesn’t suffer any embarrassment); they share meals made by Pooja Krishnan’s mother, and often find themselves at Pooja’s home (the other two friends live at the school, Pooja is just a day student); they have typical school girl spats that they eventually work out.
When Sreedevi begins a relationship with another classmate, Sooraj Menon (Skanda Ashok), her friends are wary of the relationship at first – perhaps not surprisingly, because Sooraj has the potential to come between them – Sarah is, perhaps, the most worked up about the change in their friendship, a bit put out at that Sreedevi shows Sooraj the secret hiding place the friends have filled with keepsakes that are meaningful to them. Sarah and Pooja are protective of Sreedevi, and only give their blessing when they are sure that Sooraj’s intentions towards Sreedevi are sincere, after which they help the couple spend some time alone together – challenging in their supervised school environment. The couple manages to sneak away to spend some time together away from the other students during a school trip – and not long after, Sreedevi suspects that she is pregnant.
Sarah and Pooja try to reassure Sreedevi – perhaps, they tell her, she is mistaking what she’s feeling as symptoms of a pregnancy. Sarah purchases a home pregnancy kit, only because she wants to confirm what they believe – that Sreedevi is not pregnant; but the test reveals that Sreedevi is right. Sreedevi is scared, and unsure what she should do. She wants to talk to Sooraj, but her friends forbid it, worried about what he might do or who he might tell. Her friends encourage her to talk to her parents – Sarah points out that as friends, they make a lot of decisions together, but this is a decision that’s just too big for them to deal with on their own. Sreedevi refuses, however, and the three of them try to figure out a solution. Ultimately, their research leads them to the idea of abortion, and the friends arrange to take Sreedevi to a small and discreet clinic to have it done, skipping out during the school’s Founders Day festivities. Once there, Sarah accompanies Sreedevi to see the gynecologist, an obnoxious and judgmental man who treats the girls with disdain, just wanting to send them home. Sarah lies, telling him that Sreedevi was raped, and this is her only way out – also dropping a bundle of notes on his desk, which, we can assume, is perhaps the thing that has him agreeing to perform the abortion. Things go wrong, however, and Sreedevi ends up dying as a result of excess bleeding during the procedure. Sarah, panicked, grabs Pooja and runs, and the two of them hurry back to school so their absence won’t have been noticed.
Both girls are obviously distressed by the death of their friend, but they process it in different ways: Sarah is convinced that they have caused Sreedevi’s death, and that they should have insisted on talking to her parents; Pooja believes that since they can’t change that past, the only thing they can do now is consider their futures (a stance that might seem a bit cold coming right on the heels of the death of their friend, but one which allows us to consider that people respond to stressful and sad situations in a variety of ways). However, even if one can chalk Pooja’s initial response up to the stress of a difficult situation, when she and Sarah are called to the principal’s office where Sreedevi’s death is being investigated, Pooja compounds things by completely denying knowing anything about Sreedevi’s pregnancy and abortion decision, pretty much throwing her friend under the bus. Sarah pays the price by being turned out of the school; Pooja, regretting her actions, tries to apologize, but Sarah refuses to forgive her. Sarah’s father (Suresh Gopi in an extended cameo), thankfully, stands up for his daughter, and it’s probably thanks to his support of her (she was not innocent of trying to help Sreedevi get an abortion, even lying to make sure it would happen, but she certainly wasn’t the demon everyone made her out to be, and she didn’t deserve to be completely abandoned by everyone) that she is able to finish her studies and become a doctor.
In one of the film’s more questionable (to me) choices, Pooja, after denying knowing anything about what her two friends were up to, and ending up alone at school after Sarah is turned out, descends into a kind of Ganga (out of Manichitrathazhu)-type madness, and ends up institutionalized for six years. The two friends end up re-united after Sarah receives a letter, purportedly from Sreedevi, telling her about Pooja’s situation, and that her friend needs her.
In many ways, Note Book hits all the right beats for a college drama: the innocent student accused of cheating; close friendships; the first blushes of love. The songs err on the side of being a bit groovy (for the most part), but the picturisations are fun and full of youthful exuberance. It does take a long time to get where it needs to go in terms of the unplanned pregnancy plot, but I think it does, in its way, give us the time as an audience to experience this friendship and the lives of these students. It doesn’t shy away from some important topics that often end up as taboos: menstruation; sex; unplanned pregnancy; morning after pills (the girls research this and understand that this was only an option early on); pregnancy test; abortion. And thankfully, the film rarely feels preachy, allowing the three main characters to try to find their way through all their troubles, even if the choices they make ultimately cost them a friend, and potentially, a friendship.