Ajagajantharam

Tinu Pappachan's latest that released on Christmas last year was a success at the BO given the ever so popular track "Olluleru" becoming all the rage in the months prior to the release. But does one song make the film watchable? I don't think so!

Ajagajantharam is set in Aranjali, where the annual temple festival is being organised. As a part of the festival, some major attraction include an elephant and a drama troop. But a altercation between the mahouts and the locals leads to an all out no holds barred fight among the two parties.

Well, that sounded like a WWE event (no holds barred). But it is almost like one. For most part of the movie, we are served pulsating action sequences between the two mahouts played by Kichu Telles and Antony Varghese and the brazen locals; some of the familiar faces here include Arjun Ashokan (always the one with the temper), Sudhi Koppa, Vineeth Vishwam and Lukman Avaran (who hardly gets any screentime due to all the ruckus). Jaffar Idukki, Sabumon Abdusamad, Tito wilson, Vijilesh Karayadvt (in his most decent role yet) co-star. Anil Nedumangad stars in his last screen appearance and Nadackal Unnikrishnan plays the 🐘 in the movie.

Ajagajantharam's talented ensemble cast waste their talent performing stunts. There was no need to cast such talented actors in this film. It is fun to watch with the characters all riled up and ready to charge but the banter that is a given between these guys is missing. I loved the way the movie has been made and the picturisation that captures all the elements of a bustling temple festival but in the end you are left disappointed by the sheer lack of ingenuity.

The movie I was eagerly waiting to see right from the date of announcement just because of one name and that is Tinu Pappachan.

In one word this 2 hour movie will give the effect of seeing a local temple festival and a local gang fight happening there, and there is nothing more or less in this movie, no big story and just like every local fights happening during a temple festival there is no big reason for the fight to start.

Ambi (Kichu Tellus) and Laali (Antony Varghese) is coming for a temple festival with their Elephant Neysseri Parthan (Nadakkal Unnikrishnan) and during the festival they are having a clash with local gang of Kannan (Arjun Ashokan) this is the outline of the movie.

Totally this is not a great movie, but this is really a good entertainer.

Positives

+Direction (Great effort of creating a perfect festival mood) +Music & BG Score (The backbone of the movie) +DOP (Even though it was good there was some confusion during fight scenes) +Fights (Heard the fight scenes alone took 45 days of filming) +Comedies +All actors (Everyone did well especially those who had fight scenes) +The elephant <3 (Another backbone) +Editing (Fight scenes were perfectly edited)

Negatives

-Dont look for logic -Lagging in second half -Anil Nedumangad's character wasn't having finishing -Climax was felt as a sudden end.

Verdict: Must watch in a house full theatre with friends. Not recommended for family or art film lovers.

Rating: 7.5/10.

Ajagajantharam is overated for me. Lack of script is the main draw back of this movie. Stunts and music department is par excellence. Otherwise it was a average flick for me.

This was very much in the vein of Jallikattu om terms of the style of storytelling.

Not much of a plot and it wasn't as interesting as some of the other movies in this genre.

The characters were okay but I found my interest waning in between.

Overall, a slightly above average movie.

Think of a boring party. There are no jokes. Nobody is getting along. Not that there aren't some real characters. But it's not working. Could be because there are too many rowdy characters and nobody really gets his say. Everyone puts on a show of getting along and having fun.

So the person who threw the party plays some really loud music. Also brings in an elephant. Some of the characters throw in some spicy jokes. It works for a while. Jeez! This might actually work out thinks the party giver.

But then things begin to fizzle out again. And then the utmost boredom kicks in. Party giver brings in some bombs. They throw some bombs at each other and it looks beautiful but then smoke sets in and nobody knows what's going on. All the noise and lights and smoke still cannot hide the dullness of the evening. Everyone just gives up and goes home.