Immanuel

One more movie from Lal Jose that has its heart in the right place. Immanuel from director Lal Jose is a story about man who spreads his little share of happiness and goodness into the corporate world were companies squeeze out every bit of humanity in its employees by making them helpless. With a fresh take on corporate culture and powered with performances, this movie will definitely make you smile and clap when they display the end credits.

The story is about the title protagonist Immanuel. He worked in a press that wasn’t having a good run. With financial burdens going beyond the limits, press closes and Immanuel loses his job. The kind hearted press owner helps Immanuel in getting a new job in a reputed Insurance company by recommending him to a friend of his. The movie basically is about Immanuel’s life in the new company where he finds things difficult to sync as most people are quite selfish.

Well, the plot has its relevance as most of the people nowadays are attached to corporate ventures either as an employee or as a customer. Movie successfully places the idea of having a good heart with all the practical restrictions in the corporate system that forces the common guy to mind his own business. The entire first half largely concentrates on the personal side of Immanuel, but as the movie progresses to the second half a lot of engaging, interesting and convincing events starts to happen and the perfect dosage of each such event manages to make the audience smile. With an interesting climax where Immanuel shows his selflessness in a practical way along with a suggestion to Jeevan to rethink about his approaches and strategies, Immanuel scores as a true new generation film that appeals something to the generation about having a good heart for others.

In the making, Lal Jose proved his class again with his direction style. I really think he executed the film’s dramatic portions very well. Vijesh’s script is impressive. Maturity was there in the dialogs and the hiccups in the first half wasn’t there in the second half. The story has a close resemblance to the Ranbeer Kapoor starrer Rocket Singh Salesman of the year. But it is only there in the structuring of the script. Vijesh has nicely incorporated the foul plays and events that happen in the company structure. Cinematography is impressive with all the frames having a good energy to make it engaging. Cuts are fine and the music and BGM are also impressive. The inclusion of the first song was a bit out of sync and the introduction of the HR team was a bit too dramatic.

On screen, Mammootty is cool and comfortable as the middle class man. He scores with his simplicity in acting. The next star in the movie is definitely Fahadh Faazil who gets an interesting character that has quite a lot of shades. His antagonist avatar and the comical avatar were really good and Fahadh once again proves his versatility. Newcomer Reenu Mathews is convincing as Immanuel’s better half and the kid was also sweet as Robin. Actor director Balachandran, Ramesh Pisharadi and Salim Kumar have done a good job. Sunil Sugada finally gets a character with positive shades. Nedumudi Venu and Sukumari also performed very well. Cameo appearances by Mukesh and Devan were also memorable.

On the whole, Immanuel is a movie with a sincere intention. With a humble story and practical making powered with performances, this movie won’t disappoint you at all. I am giving 3.5/5 and thumbs up for this Lal Jose movie. It’s a must watch if you are living in a world of monthly targets.