Jawan of Vellimala

Well, the movie Jawan of Vellimala from Anoop Kannan cannot be said as a disaster one. It’s a movie that fails to make the crucial impact and ends up in being an average one time watch entertainer. Some are saying its worst than Thappana, but for me it’s better than Thappana. Jawan of Vellimala fails to reach that level of expectation it created through its publicity.

The movie is about Gopi Krishnan, a jawan who returned to his home land after getting injured in a war. People don’t believe that fact and teases him saying that he is a coward. He often sees ghosts of people who jumped in the Vellimala dam and that also makes the people strongly believe that he is a coward guy. The story moves to another level when a new assistant chief engineer Varghese comes to Vellimala dam and a geological committee finds that the dam is in critical condition and it needs to be shut down with immediate effect. Gopikrishnan who is a native of Vellimala has an emotional connection with the dam tries to prevent the shutting down of dam. When he tries to have an investigation about the new problems, some dark truths comes in front of him and he tries to get these irregularities cleared by exposing the guilty.  How he does this and the sacrifices he made in the course is all about the movie.

Well, the plot is quite fresh with the interesting characterization of the central protagonist  and a backdrop that hasn’t been quite used in Malayalam movies. The story also moves smoothly in both halfs with no big surprises but still with a pleasant feel. Adequate amount of humor is there to keep the audience engaged. But the real drawback of the movie is the lack of punch in the reason that makes people go gaga about the effort of Gopi. The effort of Gopi in the movie is more of a detective who tries to expose the guilty rather than being a superhuman and saving the whole village. But the way the makers have tried to build this character as a selfless soldier just doesn’t work for the theme and makes the entire movie a letdown.

On screen, Mammootty is charming as the Soldier. Sreenivasan is cool as Varghese. I don’t know why the makers have created the role of Asif Ali as Koshi. The character was used very much in the movie but the role doesn’t look like as an essential one. Baburaj rocks the screen once again with his comic sense and Shoulder dance. Mamtha did her part neatly but her role was also not used properly.

Off screen, Anoop Kannan has a bright future as a director. He just needs a perfect script. James Albert’s attempt for a strong comeback after Vencile Vyapari wasn’t that great. If the issue mentioned in the movie was treated in a bit more wider canvas the movie could have been much much better. Satheesh Kurup gives the audience something to cheer with some cool frames. BGM was a bit too over the top. Music isn’t that catchy. Sound used for the fight sequences were quite natural.

Overall Jawan of Vellimala is another average movie from mega star. Those who believe that Thappana is a good film will surely like this movie. For me it’s an average movie that had its chances of becoming a hit. I am giving 2.5/5 and a pat on the back for Anoop Kannan’s Jawan of Vellimala.