Munthirivallikal Thalirkkumbol

When cinematographer Jibu Jacob forayed into direction with Vellimoonga in 2014, everyone in the Malayalam film industry, including the audience, noticed. It was a triumph at political satire supported by the talented Biju Menon. Two years later, with this family drama, despite being supported by the complete actor, the fact that no one knew about Jacob before that in his 13-year long career gains some substantiation.

Set in a middle-class neighborhood in a developing panchayat in Kerala, Ulahannan (Mohanlal) is a middle-aged, burly man who heads the local admin office. He is married to Annie (Meena), a homemaker and equally burly in stature who has gifted him two children, Jini (Aima Sebastian) and Jerry (Sanoop Santhosh). The family collectively lead a smooth life with minimum interactions between each other, but the biggest victim of this lack of interaction seems to be the patriarch of the family. Ulahannan is thus perceived as a reticent, aloof government employee who even keeps his handful of friends at a distance - be it at the workplace or at one of his colony building's terrace where adult men get together by evening to down few ounces and engage in casual banter. However, there is a deeper theme that the film tries to focus on: Ulahanna's distance from his own wife, and how that affects not only their matrimonial life (sex, too, if you are wondering) but also the lives of the remaining family members. M Sindhuraj's story then takes its audience to a lukewarm ride into these characters, their friends, their kin, and some unrelated people. Everything, to convey a point or two about the importance of uncensored love in a family.

At first look, you would think it's similar to Khalid Rahman's 2016 drama, Anuraga Karikkin Vellam, but then you chuck that thought off and compare it with Jeethu Joseph's 2013 path-breaking crime drama, Drishyam. Ulahannan's character looks underdeveloped, but his feelings of desolation and melancholy are relevant and viewers may be able to relate with it, especially married people. However, the transition that he makes from being this snobby husband to a starry-eyed toyboy is unnatural. Of course, there are external stimuli to this transition, and the makers may term it as the "instant effect of love", but character development is still a thing in modern cinema. It was like Mohanlal got a cue from the director, and there he goes inverting his gloomy face.

The story essentially tries to explore the complacency of middle-class family life. Ulahannan does not want to make things right, but is rather forced by that external stimuli (thanks to Neha Saxena and Asha Sarath's characters). Cannot be called a flaw per se, but it makes the whole film look like a skit that should have been presented and done with in 20 minutes. In fact, that becomes plain when in the second half, the family hop from one tourist destination to another just to kill time and bore its audience with the ridiculously expanded 160-minute play. In addition to the major theme of family life problems, there is this preachy peach that director Jacob covers the sweet and sour grape-flavored cake with at the end. Nonetheless, this too relates with the primary theme, which goes on to say that if there is a lack of plain-spoken love between the heads of the family, it will affect the foundation of the whole family.

Regardless of everything, the makers have to be lauded for slyly incorporating 51 shades of gray into this genre. Throughout the draggy yet palpable film, writer Sindhuraj shoots these tiny packets of fruity dialogues, innuendos, and references in the form of grapefruit pulp that dissolve in your mouth. Family dramas about husbands and wives have been made in Mollywood before, but these sexual innuendos in one which is directed at the whole family, and which has been received with open hands by the people so far, including those vigilante purists, is a mark of development.

The whole cast perform very well and help in the ripening of the grapes. Central man Lal puts up a good show, reminiscent of his role in Drishyam and Rosshan Andrrews's Evidam Swargamanu (2009), but crosses the line of overacting during that transition period. Meena steals the limelight hands down with her flawless portrayal of a sweet wife. The supporting cast is great, with some appreciable performances by Alencier Lopez, Kalabhavan Shajon, and Srinda Ashab. Sebastian's parents must be influential people, for there can't be any other reason for her to be cast in such an important role. She was a liability both in Manu Kannamthanam's Dooram (2016) and Vineeth Sreenivasan's Jacobinte Swargarajyam (2016). Special pat to Anoop Menon for finally doing a role that suits him - a typical Malayali envious of his neighbors. The makers couldn't have asked more from Ashab as his on-screen wife. A good part of the film explores their problems as Menon's character fools around with women just like Ulahanna DOES NOT with the political samples that sit outside his office ready to grease his hands. From one perspective, the lead cast just look like people in the backseat.

Jacob's characters indulge too much into whatever they are trying to indulge in. The political shade was not really necessary, but then again you cannot tell a Kerala-based story without protesting for the CM to resign, can you? But, there is no escape from the hollow second half which shifts the focus wholly onto Sebastian's character as she tries to read Frost. It is sure that married men and women out there who are in the middle of a mid-life crisis will cower at the end of their seats and envy at this on-screen couple.

BOTTOM LINE: Jibu Jacob's "Munthirivallikal Thalirkumbol" is a breezy, feel-average film directed mainly at middle-aged couples who are experiencing knotted complacency in their matrimonial lives. Wait for DVD and then rent it.

Can be watched with a typical Indian family? YES

Watching the latest Mohanlal movie "Munthirivallikal Thalirkunmpol" is like enjoying your favorite meal, the more handful you have, you keep loving the dish more but until you are about to reach a point your stomach can't take any more, you are given a quick desert and the meal gets over. The same happens for the movie too, it fills your mind with happiness from the word go and we enjoy it to the fullest. This movie makes us happy and our mind content.

Mohanlal effortlessly plays Ulahanan the Panchayat Secretary. He continues to amaze us, the quick transformation of his facial expressions is priceless, his fingers to his whole body emotes every expression even his tongue convey the state of his mind. He's the best in these kinds of roles which he had done in the 80s and mid 90s and we saw a little bit of it in the first half of Drishyam. Here it's for the whole length of the movie. Parallels can be drawn from Drishyam as Meena is his costar and his elder daughter is in 12th std. but the similarities end there. The best part of the movie is that it flows, nothing much is happening on screen and we can't predict where the movie is headed. That's what I liked of the movie. Mohanlal is the usual middle-aged guy whose life oscillates between home and office. He's dying of boredom, in office it's the petty fights of ruling and opposition parties while home it's the teary TV soaps that his wife follows. The only solace is the time when he shares the drinks with his neighbors. Mohanlal to get devoid of the boredom decides to have an extra-marital affair and here the story begins to blossoms and we get what we were waiting for- The Mohanlal, with no strings attached, it's just delight to watch him perform.

Meena looks like she has put more weight but keeping in mind the age she's playing on screen it's not much of worry. She has the charm to hold the romantic scenes. Also, middle-aged romance is a territory which is rarely exploited in Malayalam cinema. Here we have a couple finding love once again after many years of courtship. And the movie has convincingly portrayed the plight of the couple what they go through and how they end up in agony. Movie inspires to get rid of it and be like what you were years before. It conveys to fall in love once again. And Mohanlal and Meena had done a perfect job in convincing to be the lovable couples they were.

Complementing Mohanlal's energy is Anoop Menon, who is also at ease playing the playboy kind of role who maintains many extra marital affairs. Bindhu Panicker who plays their neighbor gets a good role after a long time.

The bond Mohanlal or Meena shares with the kids was undercooked, Mohanlal doesn't share a good conversation with Sanoop in the whole movie which was a downer. If there was also there it would have been perfect. Aima as Jini delivers what is asked of her. But sad to see the talent of Sanoop having nothing to do much than complete the family picture. And Joy Mathew too is wasted as Mohanlal's college mate. He is in the movie like for two blink and miss scenes. Suraj also disappoints as he hasn't got much to do.

Jibu Jacobs second outing after the surprise blockbuster Vellimoonga, shows his directing skills by holding the film together when the film was showing some signs of lag when the couple's romance was given too much screen time. The movie is adapted from the short Story Pranayopanishath of V J James. But, M Sidhuraj made it into a screenplay which can be enjoyed by people of all ages not only for the middle-aged couples alone. The crispy dialogues and the non-preachy way of storytelling was good. But the pun intended ones was not liked by a few sections of people and some complained they can't watch the movie with parents. For them I just want to remind them this movie doesn't have that much of adult rated jokes compared to MayaMohini.

Of the songs, Jayachandran's "Athimarakombilee… "was soothing and "Kuttanadan kayal…" –the happy fast number one, was a must have for a Mohanlal movie in the previous decade, but having all the family dancing in the ploughed field was a new experience.

Another delight is having M Jayachandran coming back as music composer, not that he was off for a while but he hadn't composed music in a major film for a long time and Pranayam (2011) was the last Mohanlal movie he had composed. And good composers who are in the peak of the game shouldn't be kept for long from doing their work.

The movie is pure fun and spreads happiness for the entire length and during the last few minutes keeps you in the edge. And everyone comes out unscathed. Also, it was good to see it's not preachy as the movies of these kind of movies tend to be. A good family movie which you can surely enjoy with your family's company.

Its one of the best movie's of 2017 with complete proper mixture of emotions and moral message to youth and family My rating- 4/5

Positives- 1.)Mohanlal (4/5), Meena(3.8/5) and Aima sebastin (4/5)- Mohanlal was the perfect choice and he does his role smoothly. Meena is best combo with mohanlal and here also works out well. Aima's role was good and she does it without any problems. And rest of the cast didn't disappoint me but sharaffudin's character couldn't bring any comedy to the screen and makers didn't utilize him and that disappointed me.

2.)Direction( 4.3/5),Script(4.4/5) and story (4.5/5)- Direction went smooth from Jibu Jacob. He once again proved like his previous movie(vellimoonga). His direction didn't bore the audience and he also succeeded in making emotional scenes effective also those few thrill scenes were rightly made.

Script by Sindhuraj was excellent and he succeeded in adding comedy to this emotional family drama. He also succeeded in not boring the audience and he surprised me because his last few outings weren't that great. Story was also good and thought provoking.

3.)Songs and bgscore (3.3/5) 3.)Cinematography (3/5) 4.)Edits (3/5) 5.)Good message to family and youth Negatives- 1.) Didn't utilize great comedian sharafuddin properly (Thats the only negative i found and they could have given him few comedy dialogues to make his role funfilled) Is it a must watch? Yes, its a must watch with your family.

Overall- This movie surprised me a lot because its overall packaging was excellent and it was a moving movie without any lag scenes. Its a perfect family movie and please do watch it.

My rating- 4/5 (for more reviews go to- Ridinbal movie reviews

Frankly, the only reason why I go to a Mohanlal movie is because my mum is a fan. She tries to catch up with any of his releases and the whole family tags along. When's the last time I saw a really good Lal movie? Maybe it's Pulimurugan. Although I liked his performance in it, I was disappointed with some of the vulgar dialogues in that movie. And that's what concerns me about any of Lal's releases. Many directors who cast him show him to be flirtatious(either in body language or dialogues) to the point that can leave the viewers uncomfortable or there could be some character in many of his movie who indulges in vulgar lines. There are exceptions like directors Priyadarshan or Sathyan Anthikad but most of the rest who cast Lal like to show him as a womaniser in a way to just titillate the male audience. With disappointment, I must say there's too much of it in this movie also, Munthirivallikal Thalirkkumbol.

Somewhere in the movie is a nice message for teens and their parents but weak execution turns this work into finally an average watch. The first half has few unnecessary scenes where characters even talk silly about the institution of marriage, the second half is not much better too and again Lal's character here is partially a womaniser and portrayed in such a manner on screen that can leave the female audience slightly annoyed or uncomfortable. And even the message to the teens is not driven home clearly. There's lots of flirty talk and scenes between a couple in the movie, then comes the message to their teenage kid not to indulge in such behavior until she is an adult, and followed again by flirty scenes between the couple!

There's one or two nice songs but finally, I felt so disappointed to see Mohanlal's characterisation here that I forget the positives(some comedy, good performances from the entire cast) in the movie easily.

But, finally I'd say go ahead if you're a hardcore Mohanlal fan or else you're not gonna miss much.

Mohanlal tends to do a masala action movie and a family movies back to back to balance his act. I think this was done as a balancing act for "Pulimurugan", which was an action movie. I took ticket for watching Pulimurugan, but I was told they are showing the new "Munthirivallikal Thalirkkumbol" instead. I was amazed because on newspaper and poster outside it was shown Pulimurugan (Priyatama Theater, Palakkad).I had a choice to return the ticket but I chose to watch it anyway.

What was Good : 1) Background score was very good. 2) Mohanlal & other actors were good. 3) Camera work is good.

What is Bad : 1) Everything Else.

"Munthirivallikal Thalirkkumbol" is a unbelievable plot less movie. Illogical events happen, which has no connection with each other. Songs have no connection with the story. In one scene Mohan Lal tells his family "Lets go to Shimla", there you go a song in Shimla. In another scene he tells his family "Lets go to Kuttanad", another song. It is ridiculous. Director, Story writer and Screenplay writer are the main culprits. There are scenes which are so unbelievable, it insults the intelligence of the audience. Mohanlal always gets what he wants. Things that never happens in any families happen here. There are more than one dream sequences which clearly shows how poor the screenplay writer is. All in all this is a poor movie without a major plot or climax and the events transcends logic in this unbelievable place it is set in. The wonderful actors who tried there best to pull out this film well, don't deserved this movie. It is a family movie for brainless families who have never seen good movies in there lives and are satisfied with an average happy ending movie.

2 out of 10.