Munthirivallikal Thalirkkumbol

The relationship of parents can have an influence on the life of kids as they are seeing almost every aspect of that bond. Jibu Jacob’s new directorial venture Munthirivallikal Thalirkkumbol is an elaborate lecture on that aspect of life. While the main agenda is to establish this message, the movie lingers way too much on building up the whole premise.

Ulahannan is the Panchayath Secretary of Keezhattur. He has a family comprising of his wife Aniyamma and two kids (boy and girl). The relationship between Aniyamma and Ulahannan has got bad over the years due to lack of proper interaction. I can’t precisely tell you how this is a movie with a central conflict, but Munthirivallikal Thalirkkumbol is trying to depict the positive impact of a jovial understanding married life.

Just like how I just struggled to summarize the film in one paragraph, Jibu Jacob and Sindhuraj are struggling to contain the movie in an engaging format. They know what they want to convey, but the material has too much of excessive content that you almost tend to forget many things that got mentioned in the first half of the film. The depiction of Ulahannan was to be a family man who sort of cracked that self realization factor in life, but on screen you kind of feel him as a womanizer. I liked the openness of the couple in that portion where they talk without any inhibition about all the slightly unethical things they did. But then the film plunges in to the parenting tone of preaching. It is almost like they wrote too much of events to bring the movie in to that climax scenario which they wanted to show to the audience.

Jibu Jacob’s first film Vellimoonga was an extremely pleasing fun ride which had a great flow. When it comes to Munthirivallikal Thalirkkumbol the flow gets replaced by flaws. There is a sense of exaggeration in every frame. The kind of affection Ulahannan’s colleague shows him, the swift mood change of the rough Ulahannan, the flirting portions etc. consumes a bigger percentage of the movie and the caricature nature of the writing makes them look unappealing. The script is criticizing the double standard hypocrisy of men, but at the same time it is kind of being a little misogynistic in depicting certain female characters. The kind of anti love marriage advices we have seen in numerous Sathyan Anthikkadu films gets repeated here as well. A particular scene in the film reminded me of a scene in Achuvinte Amma where Urvashi tries to brainwash a girl. Cinematography wasn’t that appealing. More than the songs that already got released (video), I enjoyed the rest of the songs.

Coming to the casting, I think Drishyam has given an image to the pair Mohanlal and Meena of typical middle class parents with all the flaws and pluses.  They both have a really catchy on screen chemistry. The mood shift of Ulahannan is pretty abrupt on a script level, but Mohanlal tries his level best to make the transition look smooth. Meena also succeeds in being the character. Aima Rosmy Sebastian has got an important role in the film and she was able to deliver a fair enough performance. Sanoop doesn’t have much of a prominence in the film. The character of Anoop Menon and Srinda is basically to showcase the hypocrisy of the male mind. Alencier Ley, Kalabhavan Shajon, Bindu Panicker, Reshmi Boban, Rahul Madhav, Joy Mathew, Asha Sharath and few more actors are there in the film. There is a social preaching side track in the film which has quality actors like Suraj Venjaramood, Sudheer Karamana and Meghanadhan in characters that doesn’t use their potential. Sharafudheen was funny and Neha Saxena’s character fades away just like that.

Munthirivallikal Thalirkkumbol is also facing the same issue Jomonte Suvisheshangal faced. It has a one liner theme that looks promising. But the cinematic package was quite disappointing due to the over melodrama and lack of connect. Considering the “message” factor, I would say it is just an average film.

Rating: 2.5/5