Chalakkudikkan Changathi

Chalakkudikkan Changathi is the biographical movie directed by Vinayan based on the life of Kalabhavan Mani. So when anyone approaches a biopic as a viewer, there is a sense of curiosity to know more about the person about whom the movie is talking about. I personally don’t think that Kalabhavan Mani is a less familiar name to anyone and what Vinayan has shown is a peripheral exploration of the known life. This movie might work as an informative summary to the next generation who might not know Kalabhavan Mani when he was alive. If you wish to approach this as a quality cinema, there is hardly anything there in the craft of Vinayan that will amaze you.

Rajamani is this guy from lower caste upbringing who has this ambition to be an actor in movies. He starts off doing mimicry and music shows gradually getting chances and establishing himself as an actor of pan south Indian demand. The highs and lows of that life which eventually culminated in his tragic end is the content of Chalakkudikkaran Changathi.

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There is no denying in the fact that people like Kalabhavan Mani, Thilakan and Vinayan himself has faced setbacks due to the attitude of people in powerful positions. The cringy part about the movie Chalakkudikkaran Changathi is the fact that Vinayan deliberately makes this movie a planned attempt to tarnish those people who sidelined him. The movie directly attacks people like Mammootty, Dileep, Innocent, Idavela Babu Etc and I am not saying criticizing them and glorifying himself is an unfair thing to do, but when you do that do it subtly and don’t make it look like a blatant statement.

Senthil Krishna AKA Rajamani plays the central character. He is the only good thing about this movie. His effort is evident and the guy has put in a lot of effort to be Mani rather than mocking him. Vishnu and Dharmajan are the other major Actors here playing full-length characters. They were good in being witty while they fumbled in being emotional. There are a lot of people in the cast including prominent names like Honey Rose, Joju George, Salim Kumar, Kottayam Nazeer, Ramesh Pisharody etc. and the roles were small and demanded less from those actors.

Vinayan’s tools are old and lack excitement. Melodrama is his only means to establish sympathy for the hero and that also is so outdated in its presentation that you end up feeling like the movie is rooting for the hero beyond a sensible level. The sugar coating is such that I felt it was exploiting the life of Kalabhavan Mani rather than exploring it. The discrimination the actor faced due to his color and caste might also be a true thing, but the presentation of that in the movie is horribly cliched. The technical aspects like cinematography, edits, and music have an elevation in quality when compared to the other Vinayan films of the recent past.

Chalakkudikkaran Changathi is easily a propaganda film to expose a certain section of the industry and it has less interest in exploring its central protagonist in a deep way. Saying Chalakkudikkaran Changathi is a badly made movie is in no way disrespect to that artist. The filmmaking aspect of this movie is heavily flawed.

Rating: 2/5