Ithu Pathiramanal

Traversing through their familiar backdrops of revenge and negatively charged up heroism, the new movie from director-writer combo Padmakumar and Babu Janardhan titled “Ithu Pathiramanal” is just an ordinary revenge story that has lost all its charm. A script that exposes the plot completely at the beginning itself squeezes out all that left in this typical revenge number.

The plot revolves around the life of Eldho. Eldho’s childhood was full of sorrows as he lost his father and mother became mad. All these bad things happened because his mother was raped by a Police constable. The movie is how Eldho takes his revenge on the man who spoiled his life and took away all the happiness.

Well, from the synopsis itself you can see that there is nothing in the movie to excite you in terms of content. Much like many other Padmakumar movies, the story offers much to the actors to reinvent themselves and perform. But sadly in the case of Pathiramanal neither the actors nor the makers excelled in their respective fields. After the awkwardly trimmed first half that was full of clichés, the film tries to go for a fresh take in the second half. But the writer seems to be confused on showcasing the revenge of the main protagonist. Many elements in the plot could have been used effectively to increase the drama, like the baby conceived after the rape. But they have sidelined those fresh elements and concentrated on the old wine.

In the acting side, most of the main actors fail in dialog delivery. Unni Mukundan disappoints with his emotionless dialog delivery that never suited his character. He also failed in creating a good comic feel at the scenes in the beginning.  In the case of Remya Nambeesan also, the lack of fire in the dialog delivery restricts the character very much. Pradeep Rawat who portrayed the main antagonist in the film did his part nicely, but the dubbing had some mismatches throughout the movie.  Jayasurya, who was supposed to do a dual role in the movie, did his father part neatly with the required innocence. Shalu Menon, Kunjan, Bhagath and many others in the cast did a good performance.

In the making, direction is quite ordinary. The first half writing was also quite unbaked. The usual Babu Janardhan dialogs with colloquial terminologies are there, but as I mentioned earlier the actors couldn’t pull it off smoothly. Edits weren’t that satisfying. DOP has captured some cool shots here and there. The climax fight sequence is the only thing that can be considered as a positive in the movie for its visual beauty.

For an argument, “Ithu Pathiramanal” can be considered as a socially relevant film. But with a story that goes in a predictable way from the beginning, this movie never really offers you a chance to feel satisfied. I am giving a very generous 2/5 for director Padmakumar’s Ithu Pathiramanal. The A certificate of the film is indeed a senseless decision from the sensor board who are on a mission to make each film a moral science class.

By Aswin Bharadwaj

Founder and editor of Lensmen Reviews.

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