Without doubt,Pulimurugan was the most anticipated Malayalam movie this year that took two years in production taking its budget to a whooping 25 Crore making it the most expensive Mollywood film as per the makers.To my surprise,I was welcomed by the huge full-sheet paper ad this morning,first of its kind as far as Mollywood is concerned.Height of faith in one's creation??Ahh! Maybe.
The movie started of with some stellar frames of the lush green forests,presenting the childhood back-story of Lalettan which was portrayed brilliantly by one debutant child artist,a promising prodigy to lookout for in future.Vysakh proved his mettle once again by presenting a normal formulaic storyline by Udayakrishna that's lifted up a level by the convincing narration and good screen presence of Mohanlal .
The first half was really impressive with never-before seen breathtaking action sequences choreographed by Peter Hein,well-presented VFX,lovable performance by Mohanlal and hilarious counters shared between Mohanlal and Lal.The second half was little weak in comparison with the first,but made up to a large extent by the brilliantly presented climax fight sequence.
Peter Hein deserves a special mention for those spine-tingling action sequences which for itself makes up for a delightful watch from the big screens.The VFX team did their part notably well,adding to the brilliance of the action choreography.The action sequences were top-notch and undoubtedly the best to comeout from mollywood till date.The initial and climax fights were the best part of the presentation and received huge applause from the crowd.
On the negative side,the storyline was pretty predictable particularly to the second half that follows the normal pattern of masala entertainers that we have seen many a times before.The sub-plot involving Namitha,continuous praise of the protagonist by people around and a few double intenders could have been avoided to gain more pace and appeal among the family audience.
The backgroundscore by Gopi Sunder was thrilling and boosted the appeal of the title character.Songs were average with the pick being the lullaby sung by Vani Jayaram.Shaji Kumar did a brilliant job behind the camera,elevating the impact of few trivial seqeunces on the silverscreen.Editing by John Kutty was fine.
Coming to the performances Mohanlal was the backbone of the storyline and played the role of Murugan convincingly winning the hearts particularly in the emotional and action sequences.Another pic among the cast was the child artist who played the childhood part of Murugan brilliantly.Lal excelled with his amazing comic-timing.SurajVenjaramood,Vinu Mohan etc were good.Kamalini Mukherjee was okayish.Namitha didn't have much to perform than being the usual eye-candy as in her previous films.Jagapathy Babu was apt for portraying the role of the antagonist and portrayed his character effectively.
Overall,Pulimurugan is a wholesome entertainer with some stunning stunts as the major highlight.
