24. 2018

 

Language: Malayalam

Genre: Disaster/ Survival Drama

2018; an year which is so so personal to each and every Malayali in the globe due to its catastrophic impact it has on our lives. Yet, the same year was a ray of hope as we have seen how we just persisted in front of the calamity, despite all the differences. And it is a humungous task to make a movie about this a movie about such a recent and very personal to everyone event in Kerala history; which I was skeptical  about the quality and impact before the release of this movie. But, trust me, the director and the whole crew of the movie just exceeded all the expectations and delivered something special, which is indeed a benchmark for the coming survival thrillers to meet.

Well, the framework of the movie is pretty generic , that followed the path of most of the disaster dramas. In the first half the movie explored the lives of people in a village called Aruvikkara. Then the movie takes its time set the premise and introduce us to the characters and their individual live stories in an episode like manner. Right from the title card, though the tension is in the air, the movie took things in a warm and light-hearted manner. Though the framework was generic and predictable it was pretty easy to sit through. And it is in the second half of the movie, the maker Jude Anthany Joseph created magic with human emotions. Through the bits of rescue mission, he just showed how a catastrophe can transform people and how the humanity prevails over every other factor. And the second half was filled with goosebumps generating and whistle worthy scenes and none of the scenes seemed forced and the flow of the emotions were just organic. Even though the movie had all the possibilities to fall in to a docufiction genre, the director effectively uses drama and cinematic liberties at regular intervals, making it feel more appealing and personal to the audience.

The technical prowess of the movie is top-notch and the production quality is one among the best which ever came out in the Malayalam industry. Akhil George captured the terrors and efforts to cope with utmost perfection with his camera. The sound design by Vishnu Govind and scores by Deepak further elevated the mood of the movie. As I have already said, emotions are the core of this movie, the movie is filled with actors who are super capable to transfer those emotions from paper to the screen. Based on the screen time and character arc development Tovino can be considered as the main lead of the movie who was super convincing as the lovable Military returnee Anoop. Asif Ali, Lal, Narein, Sudheesh , Indrans , Tanvi Ram and Kunchako Boban had their fare share to perform. But some of the characters such as the ones played by Vineeth, Aparna Balamurali, Gautami etc felt underdeveloped and lost prominence in the act after some point. Introducing a Tamil character, played by Kalaiarasan to explore the other aspect of the Mullaperiyar story was indeed a brilliant move by the director.

Its not like the movie is devoid of flaws. Some preachy dialogues cliched and predictable scenes, sidelining the accountability of ruling party , the caricatureish foreign characters were some among the factors that disrupted the organic flow of the movie, but in front of the emotional high the movie provided these flaws seemed rather insignificant.

May be in a closer watch in OTT  more flaws will be visible, but trust me, it is not a movie that should not be watched in a small OTT space; but it has all the qualities that can compel one to have a big screen experience. And being a movie about an incident that affected almost all the Keralites, it is indeed a different feel to experience this movie in a packed house with claps and a sigh of survival. And considering the current political standpoints, the movie has an increased relevance as it is the “ REAL KERALA STORY”.

my opinion: Must Watch!!