Iyobinte Pusthakam

Every Amal Neerad film has facets that will be captivating for those who analyze cinemas very closely. Iyobinte Pusthakam, his new film with Fahadh Faasil is no different in that aspect and it offers a grand visual treat to its viewer. As always, the only hiccup I could sense was in the script, which somewhere lost the perspective of its narrator.

The movie begins in 1900 and the main developments in the movie happen in 1946. Iyob is that loyal servant of the British people in the colonial India. When his master passed away, Iyob became the power of attorney of all the assets and ruled that area. On a scenario where law and order had no significance, Aloshy, the younger son of Iyob found it difficult to get along with his father and brothers and he ran away from them. After many years, Aloshy returned to his home and the movie shows us the events that happen in this second coming of Aloshy.

The curse of the tribal played by Lena and the influence of communism in the life of the protagonists of the film are the two main things that drives the film and I think there should have been a bigger emphasis for the communism factor as the story was narrated from that third party perspective. Where the movie looks flawed is in that area. The clearly written script gets a nice build up from the stylish director. The first half has a nice tempo and after the interval, there is a slight deceleration in the pace and things go all too personal. However, by adding certain emotions spiced up with quality shots Amal Neerad succeeds in making the killings look more relevant than just bullet showering.

I must admit that the casting of the movie is spot on. Lal was good as the rough Iyob. Fahadh once again made a nice impression with his portrayal of Aloshy. Isha Sharvani was okay. Chemban Vinod Jose, Vinayakan, Jinu, Padmapriya, Reenu Mathews, The Ravi family, Lena and many actors are there in the star cast who did a good job on screen. However, the man who won the heart was the intense antagonist played by Jayasurya. Voice modulation, minimalistic movements and the attire makes that character complete.

Amal Neerad has given his best to make Iyobinte Pusthakam a “magnum opus” visually. You will not feel the slow motion in this movie even though it has enough sequences with slow motion. In addition, the director was successful in depicting emotions like vengeance, lust in a visually aesthetic way. Cinematography is excellent. Edits are a bit calmer when compared to other Amal Neerad films. Impressive background score and nice music increases the overall quality. Visual effects were really good and I would really like to know how they executed all those shots with animals.

As Ashiq Abu said, Iyobinte Pusthakam is an Amal Neerad book of film making with certain amount of flaws in scripting. The rating is 3.5/5 for Iyobinte Pusthakam. On a time when certain film makers do cheap stuff and claims about using high end technologies in it, Iyobinte Pusthakam becomes an eye opener which tells us that we can make great films within our limited canvas.