Lalettan back at what he does best... Review on Vadakkunnaathan Movie

The man next door, that is what Mohanlal is... Once in a while he can be the larger than life flaming torch of righteousness, but then, we love him more for the roles in Kilukkam, Bharatham, and Nadodikkattu than anything else. And that is what he does in Vadakkunnathan.

The movie starts with a bus climbing the winding slopes of the hills adjoining Haridwar, with a beautifuly composed, "Pahi param porule" song, and suddenly you understand how big a void has been left behind by the demise of its music director - Raveendran Master- last year. 'Deceased' Iringanoor Bharatha Pisharadi's[Mohanlal's] mother [Kaviyoor Ponnamma] and Brother [Biju Menon] have come to Haridwar to perform the last rites of Bharathan, and suddenly they see their son, very much alive, in the shores of Ganga...

With great difficulty they persuade him to return, only to find their son changed... Bharathan, who was a brilliant theology professor who was being honoured with awards one after the other, a loving son, and a socially accepted gentleman, had become a short tempered, 'ganja' [drug] smoking, restless man prone to sudden outbursts of violence. Everything had started with him walking out of his house on the eve of his marriage to his lover Meera [Padmapriya]. The story proceeds with a flashback of his past life and then we see Bharathan changing slowly into a difficult hooligan, a far cry from the mild mannered professor he used to be once.

By the end of the first half we are full of questions, the biggest one being 'Why is he doing all this?'. We start hating the professor, for dumping his lover unceremoniously, for insulting the people who came to his house with a match for his sister and for umpteen other reasons. But then if I say any more of the plot, you wouldn't enjoy the movie, would you? So I stop here...

The plot is amazing till the last half an hour where it tries to surge forward to a conclusion, trying to tie up all the loose ends, with an 'all shades of black' villain, a selfish father-of-the-girl, a clichéd fight for the damsel etc. That is the only negative point I can see about this movie. The story, despite not having any concrete incidents in the first half, doesn't seem boring at all, and that really points at the skill of the director. There are some vivid scenes that evoke a mild sense of dread in the heart of the viewer, like the scene of the dancing swamis and Kaviyur Ponnamma walking in the midst crying out for her son, and the scenes of Mohanlal's hallucinations. Shajun Karyal has succeeded in conveying what he wanted viewer to feel, and hats off to him for that... Especially to think that before these movies, all he had directed were flop shows like Thachiledathu Chundan and Saivar Thirumeni.

The cast is good, Mohanlal being the hands down winner for the best performance. Following closely are Padma Priya,Biju menon, and Murali. Kaviyur ponnamma plays the clichéd role of the hero's mother who does nothing other than weeping. Shammi Thilakan plays the out and outright baddie- Vishwanathan, one character the movie could have done without.

The camera has beautifuly mopped up every ounce of the scenic beauty of Haridwar. The music is, easily the best point of the movie, with Raveendran Master composing a set of amazing songs, including "Gange", "Kalabham tharam" and "pahi param porule". This album is at par with other classics by him, like Bharatham and His highness Abdullah. Over all, this is one movie that you can watch without even having a second thought...