Pathonpatham Noottandu

Pathonpatham Noottandu is an episodic re-telling of certain events that took place in the 19th century with extreme cinematic liberties taken by writer-director Vinayan. For sure, the visuals by Shaji Kumar, Ajayan Chalissery's production design, Supreme Sundar's stunt choreography, and Santhosh Narayanan's score give the film a strong technical backing but the script lacks the emotional punch required in a film like this. Siju Wilson's presence is imposing and he totally shines in the set-pieces as Ezhava spice merchant turned activist Aarattupuzha Velayudha Panicker. Kayadu Lohar's portrayal of Nangeli is also quite impressive. Chemban Vinod, who plays (a different version of) Kayamkulam Kochunni, is decent. The cast is huge, with prominent names filling up important roles.

For a relatively smaller budget period film, Pathonpatham Noottandu scores better than some of the other entries in this genre in recent memory (i.e. In the Malayalam language). Yet, most characters are uni-dimensional and fail to register as anything beyond good/bad. The melodrama, which is usually on the higher side in Vinayan films, is thankfully balanced out with the action blocks and sub-plots. He reserves it exclusively for the climax, which recalls a folklore we've all read or heard somewhere. There is a very chapter-by-chapter feeling to the film, be it in the way it introduces (and re-introduces) characters or major plot developments. This adds to the emotional disconnect between us viewers and the film's protagonists.

Felt like a good watch, if you don't have much expectations.

The nangeli character really worked for me, especially the climax portion was amazingly shot. The climax scene definitely leaves a impact on us. The production design, costume, cinematography was nice. They nicely set up the 19th century period of Kerala. The music was good. The action sequences were good, especially the climax fight on the boat. It was shot beautifuly with a lot of top angle shots and very stylised with slow motion, that fight scene was pretty cool. The performances were ok, nangeli rocked in the climax.

The issue in the movie is the writing. They messed up in writing of the character of velayudha paniker played by siju vilson. Velayudha paniker is a person from the lower cast and he fights for their rights but he is never affected by any issues the people from that community is facing because he is rich. He has the money to pay all taxes, owns a lot ships, has money to build a temple. He just feels like a saviour who is doing a charity to the community people rather than being one among them. So the stakes involved for him in the story was pretty low. And there were hell lot of other characters which failed to create any kind of impact. I felt there was a proper structure missing in the screenplay. So the movie pretty much fails to create a lasting impact.

This could have been an epic, landmark movie ! In terms of production and costumes the movie might be one, but had the storytelling be tighter, editing a bit more crispier, some insights into main character's origin or struggles or "thoughts" (we only see his final actions and repercussions of those actions.

Now coming to the movie itself - the actions sequences were well shot - but got repeating and quite honestly boring towards the end. I was almost sleeping through some in the Theatre after a while ( yeah there is bunch of similar slow motion action sequences which definitely could have been cut)

The idea of clubbing Nangeli, Kochunni and Velayuda Panikar as a creative liberty would have been fine had they made a significant difference - here these are done in a messy and pretty ridiculous manner. And king asking Panikar to capture Kochunni and Kochunni stealing from a poor priest are really doing injustice and totally wrapping history cruelly and un-necessarily as well ( it doesnt really after the overall narrative other much )

I like the way the mytho-historic genre is treated in this film. There is an element of 'larger than life' persona of a historic figure and also important chapter in the fight of the subalterns against the dominant upper casts who had proclaimed insulting rules such as 'breast tax'. To think that such a 'tax' even existed is shocking these days. One had to fight to even restore the basic human dignity of covering oneself itself will be an eye opener to many in modern India. How much resistance from the upper cast men who wanted to legitimize 'letching' or more way to keep the subalterns humiliated. Definitely an important film to watch for its portrayal of modern social equality movement in India. At the same time the film narrative and visualisation is in the heroic mode, with stylised fight sequence and other 'hero' cinema tropes. On the whole an enjoyable as well as an enlightening watch.

First of all I would like to appreciate the effort that has been put into making this film.

Positives.. 1. Good performance from The Nangleli actress. She did her best.

2. The BGM is nice even though there are places where its overdone.

3. The overall direction, art and choreography did well.

4. The film did bring those old era feels.

Now onto some criticism.. 1. Siju Wilson performance is just average, I mean the acting part.

2. Storyline is bit boring here and there. Not a totally compelling tale.

3. Gokulam Gopalan's casting as the lead actor's grandfather is terrible (cringe fest).

4. Also the Kannan kurup guy is below average.

5. Expected a more intense screenplay.

The film is better than Marakkar or Mamangam but no way close to Vadakkan Veeragatha or Pazhassiraja.