Review by Jithindurden

I didn't plan to watch this movie today and was pleasantly surprised that it was actually set pretty timely during Vishu too.

I was actually expecting maybe a deconstruction of 80s nanma village Malayalam film cliche just from the name of the film but instead got a brave attempt at calling out the hypocrisies of the Kerala society through a limited amount of characters with events happening under 24 hours. It's no surprise that it was a box office failure at the time because of how it approached the themes, setting and characters. Padmarajan will go ahead and create more characters and films that talk about sex workers and how their abnormal lives are normal as well as breaking a lot more taboos in Malayalam movies. But the way it is approached here is quite different from the complex characters that are seen in his later films and even in its simplicity it manages to capture all the nuances. Ultimately it is the patriarchal male ego that creates all kinds of conflicts at all points in this film. Even Mammootty's peculiar character in this film seems to realize that is the only thing he has left in him and chooses to use it at the times when he can't drown himself in alcohol and all that is established in limited time despite the screentime being almost equally distributed among the handful of characters. There are a few issues that are common for a lot of Malayalam films of that time but it was the actress Gomathi who played one of the main characters Gaurikutty who was really miscast here. She really can't act.

Overall, this was a great experience of something very different from that era of Malayalam cinema that still has its soul very rooted in Kerala.