PUTHIYA MUGHAM : AVERAGE

PUTHIYA MUGHAM

Theatre : TVM Sree Padmanabha
Status : Around 50 persons in first class
Showtime : 2.30pm


A movie which was released on the label like it'll be similar to mass masala entertainers in Tamil/Telugu Cinema, but sad to say except in introducing action sequences and placing song sequences, it is no where near the other south Indian language movies.

Story of the movie is a half baked one for a mass entertainer. Krishnakumar/Kichu from Palakkad goes to college in Kochi to do his B.Tech. There he impresses everyone with his musical skills which helps him to get a lot of friends including Priyamani. Bala who is the tyounger brother of Saikumar and Shammi Thilakan, the land mafia criminals there. He's in love with Priyamani. Because of pressure from parents, Priyamani agrees to marry Bala after her studies. But certain incidents made Bala think that Prithviraj & Priyamani are in love which forces him to react to Prithvi. As a result of that Prithvi gets hospitalised because of the mental shock that happened in the childhood haunted again. Again he comes back to college and this time Prithvi with high voltage reacts as predictable. The second half only shows how Prithvi manages to win over the three brothers in three action sequences.

Prithvi was good as Kichu in Palakkad episodes(except the first scene mrudangam look). He was good in acting while his hand was shaking when tries to play mrudangam when he comes back from hospital. He looks perfect as mentally challenged boy in the wheel chair in the hospital episode. But from pre interval episode, the actor in Prithvi comes only in two sequences when Meera was taken back to her home from Jagadeesh's house. As a hero, Prithvi was good in doing action sequences. Meera Nandan & Priyamani has nothing to do. Bala got a powerful character and was good though lip sync problem was there in sequences. Saikumar & Shammi Thilakan has got usual roles and in this movie, they are wasted with limited scenes and not so powerful chaaracters. Jagathy, Jaffer Idukky, Nedumudi Venu, Kalashaala Babu, Anil Murali, Jagadeesh, Sona Nair, Vijayaraghavan all are wasted with insignificant roles. Undapakru(Ajayan) was notable in limited scenes, especially intro. Sudheesh was good with his oneliners. Necomer Venky was ok only.

Among technical side, the real winner is action director Anal Arasu. The action choreography is neatly done but badly directed. Every action sequence is repeated 5-6 times in each action episode which makes the viewers boring & irritating. This happens in all episodes. Especially in the final action sequences, the goons were simply moving left and right which became a pure comic scene. Also when Priyamani moves to next floor in constructon site, I don't know why director didn't ask people working there in the frame to move away from the frame. I still don't know why Saikumar didn't fight when Prithvi was fighting with goons with him. Also in the police station episode Vijayaraghavan was simply standing when Prithvi was beating other policemen. Keralapolicente kayyil oru gun polumille??? atleat to threaten him. BGM was ok only. The intro bgm of Undapakru was later used for action sequences. Diphan was able to make the movie engaging. Deepak Dev's song "Picha Vecha.." was the main calling card of the movie.

People who watch only Malayalam movies or movies once in a while will like this one as the action sequences in the movie will appear great or stylish to them because of the visual treatment given. But for others it'll be another mass masala which lacks a proper script to make it an edge-to-seat thriller which is the key component in Tamil/Telugu movies in addition to visual treatment.

Premam moolam Priyamani moolam Prithvirajnum Balakkum Kalaham OREvidham Puthiyamughathil sulabham.