Darvinte Parinamam

If they had avoided the lengthy melodramas in the first half and those commercial masala elements in the second half, Darvinte Parinamam would have worked wonderfully as a refreshing revenge cinema with commendable amount of variety to its credit. But unfortunately there are these imperfections which sort of drags the movie backwards and making it a watchable, “could have been better” movie.

Darvin is a Don who rules certain regions of Kochi with the help of his brothers and henchmen. Anil Anto, a middle class/lower middle class man who came to Kochi with his wife had to face Darvin at an unhappy occasion. The meeting wasn’t pleasing for both the parties and the humiliated don uses his power to suppress Anil. How Anil Anto reacts to this is what the movie mainly focusing on.

As I said in the beginning, the first half of the movie has too much of detailing which looks not that necessary when you look at the final story of the movie. Certain reactions of Anil Anto at various points in the movie make us wonder whether he is a super cop under cover (check the trailer).  The way he confronts the character played by Sajid Yahiya, the second half fight for bike etc. looks too much commercial and sort of disturbs that peculiarity the movie created from the beginning of the second half.

Prithviraj as Anil Anto looks better when you look at the body language of the character. A little bit of drama is there in the dialogue delivery which I think has affected the performance.  Chemban Vinod Jose was fine playing the role of Darvin and the character isn’t much of a challenge when you look at the filmography of the actor. Chandini Sreedharan was really good as Anil’s wife. The supporting cast comprising off actors like Soubin Shahir, Sudhy Koppa, Binoy Nambala, Shammi Thilakan, Hareesh, Dharmajan, Sabu, Mamukoya and many more were fine in their respective roles.

Jijo Antony who earlier made an emotionally haunting Konthayum Poonoolum works on a more entertaining cinema this time. The screenplay co written by the director along with Manoj Nair doesn’t have much loop holes. But the weightage looks a bit odd and the treatment that had certain typical heroics also causes issues. The first half that emphasizes more on the life of Anil Anto could have been reduced. A more real and sensible behavior and involvement of Anil Anto in the second half also would have added a more realistic feel to the film. The Puthiyamugham sort of transformation isn’t pleasing for the kind of revenge shown in the movie. The cinematography was good and the cuts were also smart. Sanker Sharma is a really impressive prospect Malayalam cinema should utilize in the music department. Sound design by Renganath Ravi was also impressive.

Overall Darvinte Parinamam is that movie which has uniqueness to its theme, but couldn’t present it in a completely refreshing way. The technical aspects of the movie are really good but the content at the end looks average. It had the scope to be that variety entertainer but they couldn’t crack it completely.