2016, Malayalam, YouTube rental, 8.1/10 IMDB, Directed by Johnpaul George
A tale of a boy who takes care of a handicapped mom, a tale of adolosent boys waiting to see the face under a girl’s veil, a grandpa who wants his grand daughter to become an engineer, a tale of an engineer who is depute to build an over bridge, a tale of a politician who waits to take advantage of the vote bank by backing the bridge process through his party name, a tale of the downtrodden fishermen community, a tale of the artistic old helper of the engineer, a tale of a boy who does guppy fish cultivation to control the mosquito menace in the area and make some money, a tale of a boy who saves money for his mom’s semi automatic wheelchair, the list goes on and on..
Is this not a beautiful bunch of tales that you would fall in love with.. Yes, it a beautiful story. But just when the routine of all people starts to bore you, you have Tovino Thomas, a biker sporting a long beard, riding in and you sit straight up .
When again the story travels with a tiff between the boy and the engineer, and the petty revenges leads to bigger revenges, you are puzzled and start frowning and that’s when the twist in the tale, showcases the biggest tale of all time.
You end up falling in love with Malayalam cinema as a whole. They make so much intense unique story oriented movies, ahead of any industry. The knot that the industry banks on, is quite simple, but the movie when it’s spun around it, it is the best story telling ever. Same goes with Marathi and Bengali movies as well, but Malayalam movies out smart them all with its ‘God’s own magic’.
And the acting of the lead boy Chethan Jayalal, is mind blowing, So is the acting of his mom played by actress Rohini.. The bond between the mother and the boy, oh my God, that’s the best thing I have seen in recent times.
You wonder in the mid way, why the hell Tovino Thomas accepted a script like this in the first place, and you keep wondering even long after the movie is over, but hey, the movie has some magic and right there is the support of actors like him to give the movie a bigger reach.
Same goes to big name actor Srineevasan who plays the old grandpa, wait untill the end and you will know why you have him in the story as well.
There are some loose ends and some things don’t add up in the narration of the story, yet, you can over look it all, considering the main intention of the movie.
Must watch.