One Powerful FIlm. Review on Kireedam - Malayalam Movie

‘Life, is slipping off my fingers’ Says Sethu, the protagonist of Kireedam, at a tragic juncture of his life.

The film as a whole is a painfully realistic depiction of Sethu’s life and the way his youthful dreams were replaced by the horror of being offered an undesirable crown. (Kireedam the word means ‘The Crown’)

I would recommend Kireedam to as one of the best (five) films that is ever made in the language of Malayalam, for the many aspects of film’s details.

This is a film with a genuinely impressive, powerful, fluent and thoroughly cinematic screenplay. Human situations and the emotions involved are striking and strong.

Acting performances are noticeably excellent. May it be for the lead actors or the actors who handled smaller roles. Watch the film for the sharp performances by Mohanlal and Thilakan, may be, playing their roles of the lifetime.

Clean, minimalist photography and music. They get along neatly with the story line that as a viewer, you don’t see them apart. (Malayalam films during 90’s were particularly impressive for their cinematography; this one is done by Venu, perhaps as talented as Santhosh Sivan though relatively less known outside Kerala)

I would particularly remember this film for the kind of pain you would experience when you listen to Sethu saying what I put in the first line. I can still feel the kind fear I could see in his eyes, that sharp, acute yet accurate expression when people lift him only to celebrate the arrival of the new Dada, the criminal god, and I would never forget it.

I am not all that interested in Mohanlal as a star or superstar as many would call him, but he can never be missed for that extraordinary undercurrent of natural talent . Kireedam as I mentioned earlier is one of his finest performance, and it would be a good idea to watch this film if you would be interested in rating Mohanlal’s genius, or if you’d like to compare his style of acting with that of Kamal Hasan’s, as it is done pretty often.

Back to the film, maybe one thing that slightly disturbs the overall cinematic quality of Kireedam, on a clinically analytical final view, is that it had a somewhat unrealistic villain and some excess violence, though not all that obvious. There were suggestions during time the film was released, that without that, and the unnecessary songs in the film, Kireedam could have been a lot of class.

For a final note, I would say that this film isn’t too short of it.