Rebecca Uthup Kizhakkemala

In a sense the new Sundar Das movie Rebecca Uthup Kizhakkemala is a misleading film. A movie that was promoted as a sports oriented film never really goes to that particular territory and ends up in being a cliché Malayalam film that would have worked if it was released a few years back. Filled with the typical flavors like family, rivalry, misunderstandings etc Rebecca Uthuppu Kizhakkemala stands just under the average mark.

Rebecca is an Asian Games gold medalist for India and she managed to achieve this from her limited resources. She is living her happy life along with father, mother and sister. Rebecca’s achievements melt many minds and the issues between her father and mother’s family also gets solved. Rebecca gets her old friend Vishnu as her new coach and they are preparing for the next Olympics. Some unfortunate incidents throw bad light on Rebecca’s character. The consequences that happened after this incident and how it Rebecca and her family faces these issues is basically the story about.

The basic problem is that the story cannot be easily said as Rebecca’s own story. It is Rebecca’s story narrated through many characters and sadly the writer forgot to spend time on his title protagonist. Not just the title protagonist, the so called sports film slipped away from its topic to a typical emotional drama that never navigates through any fresh concepts. Moreover making Rebecca a normal Malayali athlete at the end made me think why they planted the character in a sports backdrop.

On screen, there are very less scenes for Ann Augustine to perform. In most of the scenes she is just a member in a crowd. For me the best performer was indeed Mr. Sai Kumar who handled his character very nicely. Shari also performs well as Rebecca’s mother. Kalabhavan Mani gets a good role and I fear Christian missionaries may file case against the film for this character. Sidharth gets a good character as Vishnu but fails to impress at occasions (school scene.). Jishnu was convincing as Kuruvila. Thanks to Suraaj and Shajon for giving some entertainment in the largely dull melodrama. Augustine, Sukumari, Praveen, Niyas, Shalin and many others have done their part nicely.

In the making, Sundar Das follows the old school tactics. Nothing fresh in terms of treatment is there. In the writing part, as I said the writer forgot to concentrate on his title protagonist and the sports material. Don’t know why he narrated the movie as the flash back story of three college guys who is totally unnecessary in the content. Some sensibilities are also questioned like the school scene where the physically strong coach cannot open a weakly locked door. Jibu Jacob’s cinematography is satisfactory with some cool visuals of Kizhakkemala. Make up was on the down side.

Overall, Rebecca Uthup Kizhakkemala is typical Malayalam movie with all those outdated formulas. I am giving 2/5 for this family drama. Sports and Freshness is missing.