Pathonpatham Noottandu

When i first saw the teaser of pathonpatham nootaandu, I was surprised to see a good level of production quality especially from a director like vinayan whose previous film aakashaganga 2 being a so bad its good film. Such quality I didn't see even in movies like maamangam and marakkar both starring two superstars. I just wanted to see whether the writing too was updated.

The biggest plus point of pathonpatham nootaandu is its uncompromising production values. Hats off to gokulam gopalan for making high quality period films like pazhassi raja, kammarasambhavam, kayamkulam kochunni and now this. Siju wilson spent nearly two years of his career for this film learning horse riding, bodybuilding and martial arts. And it reflects it on screen very well. Hope he becomes a superstar after this film. Another freshness I felt was presenting kayamkulam kochunni with grey shades.

Though the film has good production values, the script is strictly average. The film looses its steam after the capture of kayamkulam kochunni character. And despite having an ensemble cast of talented supporting actors none of them are in their best form. Just an okayish performance from everyone.

On the whole pathonpatham nootaandu had the production quality to become a mini baahubali but writing turned to be just basic.

*** Pathonpatham Nootandu ( 19th Century) Movie Review ***

Directed by Vinayan...

Starring Siju Wilson , Anoop Menon , Chemban Vinod , Sudev Nair, Kayadu Lohar in lead role...

Verdict of The Movie : Super Hit ... 5/5 ⭐

Plot of the Movie...

During the era of 19th Century, in the place of Travancore, there was a custom that women of lower caste is not allowed to cover their breasts..They were deprived of their fundamental right... Moreover they also need to pay breast tax..

Also there were other crimes named as tradition like moustache tax for lower caste men, not allowed to visit temple, not allowed to wear the used clothes of the upper middle class...

So Aaratpuzha Velayudhan Chekavar a fierceless person who also belongs to the lower caste was on a battle against this unjust crime against the state...

Positive Factors of the Movie

1) Siju Wilson, this man broken the expectations of the movie...If he was a comedian in Premam, no one ever believed that he could carry such a heavy character..Even when the movie poster launched i was confident that this will be an another disaster for Vinayan the film maker but Siju you stolen the show...

2) Vinayan Sir writing and screenplay was good... His involvement was well evident in all the sectors of the movie, be it action, sound design, art direction etc...

3) Kayadu Lohar as Nangeli also gave a stellar performance...

4) Action sequences were well choreographed, especially the climax fight sequence was awesome...

5) Vinayan sir able to bring out the hardships faced by the lower caste people in depriving from their fundamental right especially the last scene wherein Nangeli cuts her breast to show her protest against the attrocity was heart touching.....

6) Cameo Appearance of Indrans stolen the heart of the audience....

Negative Factors of The Movie

1) Songs were not upto the mark...

2) Casting of Tiny Tom Deepti Sati , Chemban Vinod was not right...

3) Portray of Kayamkulam Kochuni characterization seems to be incorrect as Kayakulam Kochuni Malayalam movie played by Nivin Pauly was different...

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.

I am kinda confused as to why I found this one to be surprisingly the best one among the recent lot of period dramas that came and went without any real engaging experience.

It doesn't do anything better than the period dramas that came before but idk it maybe coz it didn't have that kind of elevations like them too.

The sets weren't very striking except for a few ones like the ones put up for the port? The others looked good but at the same time the artificiality could also be easily seen.

The performances were decent enough and i guess I found it engaging and entertaining coz of the narrative and major plot points, which I felt were delivered neatly and with needed seriousness in it..... which I didn't find effective in those other malayalam period dramas (if being honest MAMANGAM did have a partially effective one though but it faltered on most of the other stuff) of recent times.

Siju Wilson delivers in a good if not exceptional way and the other supporting cast members too contributed decent performances.

The script was missing with good and striking character elevations and dialogues and the action sequences too weren't anything gripping.

Everything felt really grounded from the get go but the climatic action sequences was the one that finally did the very much needed character elevation and stylish(even if with a bit overused slowmotion effect)and engaging and the whole of it even made me root for AVP :)

Overall even with the lack of good and memorable character expositions, quality compressions and lack of tightness in script I really found it to be an engaging and enjoyable period action drama fr.

PS the voiceover from ikka at the end. Lit af

6.5/10.