Marakkar: Lion of the Arabian Sea

The grand scale of production values such as Art, VFX, series of mega actors, costumes,Songs, Cinematography all would make one think here is Malayalam movie's KGF and Bahubali. First half is crisp and engaging. Pranav Mohanlal portion was very well done. Apart from some miscasting and every one using their own slangs , first half was very impressive.

Second half started of with long cliche melodrama that will put shame to the word cliche. From that point script and director did not know what to do and how to take it to a climax.

Any how, watch it for the first half, for the grandness never seen in malayalam movies before.

It's not worth talking about the historical significance of the film because the director itself claimed that the film has only 30% of historical factor rather all other events are merely fictional. The titular character, Kunjali Marakkar is a historical person (where the film's protagonist is Kunjali Marakar IV), and some of the elements flavored on the path of the story have that kind of historical significance. The Zamorins governance, invasion of the Portuguese, etc are the noted historical connotations. When we heckle the traces of Marakkar's legacy at the verge of the freedom movement we get the clear idea that all the marks pointed in the history is totally not at all history but it is something mythical in context. So we can't argue about the exact validation of the things that the film shows and the historical shreds of evidence portraying. Just put aside the matter of history, the film Marakkar: Lion of Arabian Sea is not much catchy and has not reached the expected level for me. The term 'expected' only refers to the fuss covered on all sides by filmmakers, news channels, and also among the fans. Actually, I didn't expect anything more from Marakkar because all the fuss that I'm talking about only has validity when the film gets released. After all, it's up to the audience. All that tumult is only a matter of marketing or publicity. Except for that tumult I went for the movie because of some of the factors. The one thing is the director itself. Priyadarshan is a good-crafty director whose visuals have innate quality and freshness. I love his frames and composing. As an admiring filmmaker, I look upon his films not because of the subject matter he discussed but because of those frames. I expect that kind of frame in this film and he didn't disappoint me. The next thing that urge me to watch the film on the first day is the acclamation received for the film at the National awards. It bagged the best feature film, Visual effects, and Costume design recognition at National Awards. I completely agree with the Visual Effects and Costume Design section but I don't know why the jury selected this film as the best feature one. I think they are mistaken. The main problem relies on the script itself. The movie lacks its core on the progression where it can't connect the emotion among the audience. It has visual assistance with CGI but more than the gimmicks of visual effects the film swirled into dialogue to dialogue presentation. I felt that the director intentionally packed dialogues in each and every corner of the movie. It is a big film; in content and making but can't be valued as a good one because it lacks the nucleus that a film must-have.

As usual director tries to copy other language movie scenes 1)Pirates n bahubali stunt 2) Troy's emotional scene 3) suryas rajubhai suspense Casting- Ammas main members where added and their casting was not apt, which bring comedy in serious situation especially mukesh.

If the movie was directed by rajamouli atleast the copied( which I mentioned above) area could have been better.

When the war starts camera starts shaking...

Overall for malayalam movie it was a great effort which is not good movie comparing to other language movies.

One time watchable 6.5/10.

Marakkar is a decent attempt and a one time watch (sans the hype). The cinematography, costumes, sets etc. Are quite well done. However, the core of the movie is amiss. The story and characters are all over the place and none of the arcs are well developed. It's just poor direction from Priyadarshan, throwing so many characters into the mix for no good reason whatsoever. All the plot lines are so short and meaningless, that nothing sticks. I watched it on the first day and took my family along as well, and it was truly an excruciating watch for my parents since it's 3 hours of boredom with no story. Mohanlal still has so much to offer and I really hope good directors take advantage of his acting prowess and producers spend big money on promising projects, unlike this one.

Marakkar Lion Of The Arabian Sea (2021) : Brief Review -

The IQ Level of National Award Juries must be lower than the Temperature during Winter Season In India. I actually don't care about award shows, not just Indian but also International ones. I even have problems with Oscars (please note I have seen all 93 Oscar winners films to say that). When Marakkar won National Award, it didn't excite me at all. Only two reasons for me to watch this film were Mohanlal and Malayalam cinema's attempt to make a visual granduer. There are hardly few legendary films made in this genre, the best remains Oru Vadakkan Veeragatha (1989), and now after watching Marakkar I can easily say that Malayalam cinema will never be able to make a magnum opus like that. Marakkar is grand, it has big structure but lacks soul. Priyadarshan terribly mediocre vision has caused heavy collapse. I found it interesting for like two hours, everything was looking decent, but then the last hour spoiled the party. The climax was damn outdated. Even 80s ans 90s' Malayalam films had better cliches than this. Offtrack Mohanlal struggles but somehow survives. For me, this man is the biggest legend from Mollywood. He has given so many cult films and outstanding performances during his prime phase- Late 80s, 90s and 00s. To watch him doing hardcore action in classic films like 'Keeradam' 'Yodha' 'Spadikam', 'Kala Paani', 'Aaraam Thapuran' was an experience, but watching him doing action at this age with such physics didn't look suitable. Priyadarshan just did not care about the outcome, he just made for his own sake. However, Marakkar is not a headache, it's a decent film but the kind of undeserving hype they created deserved some heavy slaughtering and that's what I've tried to do. Overall, strictly average. Grand but not Good. Somewhat interesting but not fascinating.

RATING - 5/10*

By - #samthebestest.