2021, Malayalam, Netflix, 8.6/10 IMDB, Directed by Basil Joseph
A borrowed story from the western marvel series that had been conveniently layered with abundant nativity and dolloped with some tender moments to make it ‘a true to the soil’ movie that leaves you warm at your heart.
The down to earth superhero movie takes its time to set the premise in the small village with subtle establishment of its characters. The prologue of the drama troupe of Saint of Pallikannu played by the senior Tovino Thomas, a real life saviour of many lives during a fire that breaks out in his drama watching crowd, teases the viewers aptly of what the plot is about. Jaison, a village tailor played by junior Tovino Thomas, engages the viewers with his MJ moves and his character being the naivest of all the characters that he had played so far, steal our hearts straightaway.
A superhero story without a super evil character to combat with, can never accomplish its purpose. The trained theater artist Guru Somasundaram playing the character of Shibu, does that so captivatingly, rubbing the distress of the character on to the viewers.
The makers decide to unravel the lead roles using extensive narratives. The revelation of the super powers of both the characters are done quite illustratively. While Tovino’s is done with a lighter hilarity, Guru’s super power revelation had darkness seep all through it and the actor pulls it off with ease using his expressive eyes and evil smug.
The subplots over stretches the screenplay, making the viewers restless to witness the clash of the good Vs the evil. But it does arrive with a bang in the last 40 minutes of the film, in its full glory, with the original gothic gargoyle effect and all. The sensitive version of the homegrown super powers, both the village ‘super hero tailor’, who stitches his own costume and the gunny bag masked lungi-clad ‘super evil-commoner’, backed with the flashback of a righteous father, leaves the viewers content.
Surprisingly the graphics were not a let down. The film needed a good trim but nevertheless was an original in many ways, be it the nephew who educates his uncle about the super powers or the cute martial art teacher female lead played by Femina Geroge or the true love of the Shibu’s, Usha, played by the beautiful Shelly Kishore.
A good watch.