Movie : Thiruvambady Thamban
Director : M Padmakumar
Music : Ouseppachan
Cast : Jayaram, Haripriya
Director M Padmakumar narrates the story of some members from a wealthy household based in Thrissur, who lands up in a real mess, in his latest flick Thiruvambady Thamban. Jayaram plays the title role.
Thamban Tharakan (Jayaram) manages the tuskers that their family owns. He is sharing a rather ‘cool’ relationship with his father Mathan Tharakan (Jagathy Sreekumar) and uncle Kunjoonju (Nedumudi Venu), to the extent that the seniors help him run away with his fianc’e Anjali (Haripriya), after getting drunk one night.
The first half is mainly aimed at establishing the might of the ‘Tharakans’, which reminds one of certain yesteryear Jayaram movies like ‘Kottaaram Veettile Appoottan’. Worse still is the use of ‘Thrissur slang’ by most of the actors. Jagathy Sreekumar’s dialogues have been dubbed by some other artiste after his fatal accident, but the problem is that it sounds like a mimicry version of the legendary actor’s style.
The film takes a rather serious turn in the second half, after a mishap that happens in Madurai and then begins a cat and mouse game, with a mighty gang from the place. There are some gripping moments in the film but all along, one gets the feeling that the story could have more interesting if this close to three hour saga was at least shorter by some forty five minutes or so.
No two ways about it, there is a genuine storyline here. But it should have been told in a nicer, more gripping manner. Also, there are some doubts regarding the logic as well. Traditionally, the whole of Tamil Nadu is being shown in Malayalam films as a land where some ‘thevar’ or ‘kounder’ is above every law and system. This happens in this film as well but more surprisingly a gang from Madurai just goes bribing an influential cop and kills people at will in Kerala too! Now that is something new, right?
M Padmakumar, who has made some nice movies like Vaasthavam, Vargam and Shikkaar in the past, has made the film honestly but S Suresh Babu’s script is far from perfect. Manoj Pillai’s visuals need to be appreciated and Ouseppachan’s music is fine.
Jayaram once again comes up with his branded style but he flounders while saying the dialogues with the peculiar Thrissur slang. Haripriya has nothing much to do. Jagathy Sreekumar has performed well and so has Nedumudi Venu.
Kishore, who plays the main villain, comes up with an impressive performance though his role is not very well written. The rest of the cast too has done their characters sincerely.
‘Thiruvambady Thamban’ has perhaps been made after putting in great efforts. But still it lacks the finesse to qualify as a thoroughly engaging watch. But then in a sense, it is certainly better in its content than most of the films released during recent times.
Now decide your choice based on the pluses or the minuses.