Makal

In Makal, director Sathyan Anthikad and writer Iqbal Kuttippuram want to explore the teens of a girl who is going through a lot of mood swings because of her bodily changes. But this idea gets abandoned after a point, and somewhere, the movie starts to look for reasons to justify typical parenting strategies. Clueless about its trajectory, Makal ends up being a meh product with far too many subplots that don’t reach anywhere.

Nandan is a gulf returnee, and he worked as a mechanic in the middle east. His wife Juliet was a housewife, and his daughter Aparna was studying in Plus Two. After losing his job, he comes back to his home and decides to start an organic food product business. The imbalances in Nandan’s equation with his daughter and what all happens in that family due to that is what we see in Makal.

There is a clear lack of focus in the writing of the film. In the beginning, you will feel like the girl’s mood swings are going to decide the narrative. Then it shifts to Nandan’s business. Then it goes to parenting lectures and family dramas. After a point, Juliet is taken away from the picture to make it a conflict between father and daughter. The build-up eats up so much space in the screenplay that, by the time you realize the conflict in this family drama, the climax is almost around the corner. And frankly, it is really sad to see someone like Sathyan Anthikad depending on purposeless characters played by Naslen and Althaf Salim to entertain the viewer.

Jayaram brings out all his stock expressions and voice modulations to be Nandan. In her (second) comeback, Meera Jasmine plays the “cool” mom, and the role offers nothing challenging for her. At times her dialogue delivery is slightly off. Devika Sanjay, who plays the key role of the daughter in this film, was fine, considering the way the character was written. Naslen’s character comes from the Girish AD universe, and even though it’s a useless character created for the sake of comedy, he was a relief. Out of the veterans, Siddique was memorable. Kannada actor Balaji Manohar also appears in a crucial role.

Makal feels like a film they decided to shoot once the structure was confirmed. The subplots of this film are not blending well with the narrative. Nandan is going with his father to meet an old patient, then Nandan is trying to attract customers for his organic product, the whole Sreenivasan episode, the Naslen sidetrack, etc., somewhere, expose the inefficiency of the makers to come up with something that will take the story forward. At one point, I thought the movie would ultimately ask Nandan to have some faith in his daughter and don’t be so controlling. But to my surprise, Sathyan Anthikad and Iqbal Kuttippuram decided to introduce a goon who tells Appu that her father is a much better person compared to him. The patriarchs never give up! The music and the background score are made by Vishnu Vijay and Rahul Raj, respectively, but it never really clicks.

Makal is a poorly developed script that struggles to find a proper conflict. It is a bland and preachy drama with too many subplots that don’t take the movie forward. The desperation to include all the ingredients of a typical Sathyan Anthikad film makes Makal a drag.