Helen

A Malayalam movie on Adventure > Survival genre. This is one of the finest movies with good screenplay and characterization. Story knot is simple: The protagonist (Helen Paul) gets trapped in a place from where she cannot contact her family. What happens to her is the story. Characterization of Helen Paul (done by Anna Ben) and her father (done by actor-director Lal) glues you till the end.

Some lessons from the movie.

Caring: Helen has genuine care for the people around her. Reminding her father to take medicines or giving medication to her neighbor can be a usual behavior. But, commenting on the ear-ring of the women collecting garbage, playing with a customer (child) and make him eat, feeding the rat, or greeting the watchman with a smile shows the genuine care she has for the people around her. Caring has become her nature and an important attribute of a nursing student.

Strength: Strength of a person is displayed in distress. When Helen is trapped in the room and the grit she displays is impeccable. As a movie, there is no wow factor. But, considering it is taken from the real incident, the mental strength and the effort Helen put to keep her alive is spine chilling. Her strength is displayed when she police tells her father about her boyfriend. She didn’t cry and say I will not do again or sorry papa. She just lowered her head in shame and faced her father. It is the strength in accepting the mistake of hiding something from her father.

Keep Trying: All efforts will not give us results. But, keep trying makes us alive. Helen keeps trying even with her injured leg. At any point, if she had stopped trying she would have lost her life. In one of the trying efforts to keep her alive, she starts to burn the papers and she realizes that it causes smoke and temperature further decreases. She dozes the fire. When we try new things we make some mistakes. It just means that we should stop that activity and not the effort.

Enjoy Little Success: In our efforts to succeed, we miss the little success we achieve. She identifies that the exhaust fan is the culprit and she tries to stop it. All her efforts go in vain and at one point, she succeeds in stopping one fan. That small success gives her hope to climb again with the dislocated leg and try something new.

Use the Resources Wisely: She uses the resources to cover/pack herself and protects herself from the cold. She uses the tap and clinging sheet wisely to cover herself. She rearranges the boxes and creates a small cave and protects from freezing. Towards the end, she uses the hairclip to open screws. She knows what she needs – To escape. And, she does all she can with the resources she has. In a crisis situation, this is an important lesson – Be clear what you want and use the resources wisely.

Safety: Safety at workplace is something we are taken for granted. Had the room have an alarm (sound and light), she would have used to escape. Luckily there is no casualty. But, it is worth to have an alarm in freezing room, fire exit and fire extinguisher in all buildings, and/or oxygen masks, life jackets, and other safety items in the relevant jobs/places.

Carelessness: When we enter workplace in group, it is common practice that we enter and punch-in later or punch-out and still be in office for last minute work. Either had Helen left office immediately after punch-out or punch-in and then entered the freezer room to arrange the items, she would have escaped. Here, she punched-out and then goes to the freezer room. The manager thinks all the employees had left the place and he locks the mail door. Our carelessness or violation of rules will not cause problems always. But, it will create problem once and it will be lifetime lesson.

Handling Disappointment: Helen and Father face disappointments.
Helen tries to correct her father rationally by giving facts about smoking. He didn’t listen. Disappointed Helen emotionally attacks him with bible. Her emotional attack turns successful and she gets a promise from father.
When Helen’s father knows about Helen’s boyfriend, he is disappointed and emotionally attacks Helen by not talking to her. His silence breaks Helen. Had he spoken to her rationally, they would have solved the issue.
We should know when to correct a mistake rationally and when to correct a mistake emotionally.

The Other Side: The three male characters – Father, Boyfriend, and Manager has other side that they have not shown to Helen.

When the police says Helen would have eloped with her boyfriend, father doesnt accept that and refuses to go to his house to check about Helen. It says a lot about the father’s trust on his daughter. Helen’s manager keeps screaming at his employees. Later, we hear him talk about his frustrations at home. We understand why he is that way at work — because he needs to vent somewhere. Boyfriend initially comes like a guy who is stalking Helen. Later, we find him as a guy who will seek her out even when she won’t return his calls.

In real-life also, people around us has other side and we fail to see the other side.