Anchakkallakokkan is one of those rare style-over-substance films where the style is very much blended with the rustic rawness of 80s Kerala that is not often seen. The most stylish characters here are the Gillappis who are presented with so much style and at the same time very rustic that if you think about how such characters with these specific qualities shown in the film would have been portrayed in the past, it would be either for comic relief or as pure villains unlike here which itself makes this worth a lot for me. The action set pieces are intricately designed to feel the rawness of it while being stylish. The shaappu fight in the middle was amazing, the only thing I would've wanted there was a little bit more blood because a lot of those would be way more damaging if it was real. I also loved the final showdown even if it felt like dragged just a little bit more than needed. Lukman's character is used for an introduction to the area and then we are moving through a lot of different stories contained in this village. Splicing his backstory a little bit more throughout would have worked a bit more for the viewers to invest in him more as a protagonist at the end because the gap between the focus given to him seems to have worked against having someone to really root for. Overall, there are a few issues with the writing which if they'd have done better, this movie could have been really great. Personally, Lukman's character was very relatable in a lot of ways and loved the ending so much and that end credit song slaps.
Even though it is understandable why they chose the title of the movie, it being a hard-to-pronounce word unless you have heard it before has been a major setback for the film as many have said it's too weird of a title to even try watching the film.
This movie could have been really great with better writing but even now it's a very well-made film that would benefit from a theater watch.
