Barring a fairly okay Panchavarnathatha, most of the movies featuring Jayaram in the recent past were outright bad movies. On that scale,
So Lonappan is our main protagonist and he has three sisters. The talented Lonappan was forced to quit studies and focus on maintaining an old watch repair shop. Due to financial insecurities, Lonappan and his sisters aren’t married and there is a frustration inside Lonappan’s mind. How a particular incident pokes that inner wound in him and how the journey after that changes his life is what Lonappante Mamodeesa talking about.
The flaws in Lonappante Mamodeesa are numerous for sure. From a scattered script that takes almost an hour to get some rhythm to the clichéd Jayaram moments of family sentiments and irresponsible behavior, Leo Thaddeus toils with the Jayaram elements for a huge chunk of the movie’s run time. The 136 minutes long movie’s pluses actually come in a few sequences in the second half of the film where we actually get to know about the storytelling talent of Lonappan. The Dileesh Pothan sequence was really an easy and positive phase in the movie which in my opinion made sure that nobody would call this movie a bad one. Even when the climax becomes a bit too overambitious there is no sense of forceful messaging which in my opinion reduces the list of negatives.
Jayaram is very much in his comfort zone and the character of Lonappan is an amalgamation of all the characters one would remember hearing the name of this actor. Shanthi Krishna as the elder sister was convincing as the stubborn one. Uppum Mulakum fame Nisha Sarang was also pretty good as the witty and mature second sister. Eva Pavithran was believable as the supportive younger sister. Hareesh Kanaran finally gets a role where he is not always a blabbering comedian. Dileesh Pothan needs to be appreciated for his elegant and fluent performance. Joju George, Kaniha, Anna Rajan etc are there in the long cast and they were all fine in their respective roles.
Leo Thaddeus’ way of handling drama has not really got updated and I feel that it was some of the performances that actually saved this movie from being excessively dramatic. The writer in him is really struggling in the beginning portions to establish the characters. Even in the second half, there are so many lose subplots that aren’t really clubbing to the narrative smoothly. But for some reason, those visuals of obstacles faced by hero helps the movie in making the viewer root for Lonappan. The c
Lonappante Mamodeesa is far from perfect and yet surprisingly engaging. Through a very few moments of positivity, the movie manages to hide its flaws making it that watchable family drama.
Rating: 2.5/5
Through a very few moments of positivity, the movie manages to hide its flaws making it that watchable family drama.
Green: Recommended Content
Orange: The In-Between Ones
Red: Not Recommended
