Onnum Mindathe

Faizal Ali’s impressive cinematography is the main thing that saves the movie Onnum Mindathe from being an irritating experience. Built on the same platform of the 80’s films that had these extra marital affairs and family destruction as the theme, Onnum Mindathe from the Ordinary director Sugeeth becomes really ordinary with huge amount of melodrama flooding the entire second half.

Sachidanandan is a happily married Agriculture officer who is living with his wife Shyama and daughter Kunji. He is that typical (slightly outdated) Malayali who has all concern about his family, relatives and friends. With the entry of his childhood friend and Jose from Dubai, the thought of having an extra marital affair start to grow inside Sachi’s mind. How Sachi reacts to it and how it disrupts the balance of his small family is what Onnum Mindathe discussing.

Sugeeth shows a considerable improvement in the making in the first half of the movie. With Jayaram, Manoj K Jayan and Dharmajan in the star cast, a number of witty and cheesy sequences are there in the movie’s first half. From the moment the movie enters the drama phase, things are all predictable and the melodrama just goes on and on to somewhat an unnecessary level. The title Onnum Mindaathe was given to the movie because of the attitude of Sachi and Shyama in this particular phase and most of us won’t find a reason for Shyama’s silence that looked weird.

It’s not boring to see Jayaram doing the character of Sachi, but it’s just a repeat telecast of many of his previous characters. Meera Jasmine finally got her charming expressions back and a better makeup too, but her dialogue delivery was robotic. Anikha was sweet, but the idea to give her that “ayyo acha pokalle” type scene was a bit too brave. Manoj K Jayan as Jose is a partially annoying eccentric Casanova. Sarayu was much better compared to her previous roles. Lalu Alex and Dharmajan also did their roles effectively.

In the making, Sugeeth shows considerable improvement in his vision in the first half. But totally fizzles in handling the drama cluttered second half. The script just can’t capture the tensions of the family in a way that makes the audience feel sympathy for the on screen characters. The 80’s feel was quite evident which makes it unimpressive. Music was good and after a long while we get to hear a Yesudas-Chithra song in Malayalam. Satisfactory background score. The best thing about the movie was undoubtedly the cinematography. Every frame showed great visual quality.

Onnum Mindathe is below average. Started off well as a typical family entertainer, but ended up as a head scratcher that unappealingly revamps the old formula. My rating is a generous 2/5 for director Sugeeth’s Onnum Mindathe. Nothing much to talk about.