Looking at Pattabhiraman as a movie from the duo that delivered movies like Thinkal Muthal Velli Vare, Aadupuliyattam and Chanakyathanthram you will be surprised at the decrease in the level of mediocrity. But does that mean Kannan Thamarakkulam and Dinesh Pallath have finally managed to make a good cinema? Absolutely not. Pattabhiraman is strictly for those who can watch anything recorded using a camera with a social message attached to it. The minimal improvement in their attempt to make an entertaining movie is the only pinch of relief here.
Pattabhiraman is a cooking enthusiast and he is a food inspector in the health department. He is yet to find a better half as he was clear about the cooking enthusiasm and knowledge he expects in his partner. The movie Pattabhiraman is actually talking about Pattabhiraman’s fight against food adulteration when he takes charge in the city of Thiruvananthapuram. What all obstacles and hazards he had to jump across in this journey is what the movie showing us.
In promotional interviews for this movie, you may here the makers and actors say things like this movie is about something that is extremely pertinent in current society. Yes, I completely agree with that statement. But when you are making a movie, it needs to have some sort of quality in saying that message. You have to be living under a rock to not know that almost every food materials we consume these days have impurities that can give us major diseases. So when you make a movie about that issue, the hero saying the same statement in every scene isn’t going to make an impact. In one scene when the mayor of the district stops Pattabhiraman from entering the kitchen of a posh hotel, Pattabhiraman decides to take the mayor to RCC to show how small kids are fighting cancer as they consumed adulterated food. There is nothing wrong in showing this to an ignorant person. But when you put a person like mayor into this spoon-feeding scene, the scene becomes extremely plastic. In one scene one of the leading ladies starts to have a crush on Pattabhiraman because he made porridge for her father and her bedridden father walked after a long time. This kind of broad-stroke hero-worshipping is absolutely sickening.
Kannan Thamarakkulam continues his style of creating scenes filled with flashy cuts and excessive background score. It is actually difficult to understand what made this movie so bad. The writing and the direction of the movie are competing with each other to drag the movie backward. The characters are all caricatures and there is absolutely no regard for their emotions. They have released a promo featuring Dharmajan, Pisharody and Hareesh Kanaran. In the movie, that scene happens right after a really tragic event and Dharmajan and Hareesh were weeping in those scenes. What they show as the “mind-blowing” intelligence of the hero to expose the dark side of the food industry mafia is just a lame attempt at creating a Shankar movie. Dinesh Pallath has written a screenplay that needs to be reminded frequently to focus on what it needs to convey. Many parallel tracks are happening in the movie and almost all of them aren’t landing smoothly. The cinematography of this movie has the worst usage of the light leak effect I have seen in recent times. Making every frame look like the frame of an ad film is not good cinematography. I loved the song Unni Ganapathiye, but the rest of the tracks was forgettable.
Jayaram continues to act in his usual style and Pattabhiraman isn’t a big challenge for him as an actor. Miya gets a role that pretty much looks like a caricature. Sheelu Abraham continues to struggle due to the lack of expressions. Dharmajan and Hareesh can make you laugh, but the placement of their scenes is extremely awkward in many areas. Tamil actor Jayaprakash plays the role of the antagonist. The elaborate cast has many names including Nandu, Anumol, Saikumar, Madhuri, Baiju and several others in small roles.
The mediocrity of almost all the Kannan Thamarakkulam movies and the lackluster nature of almost all the recent Jayaram movies may give you a feeling that Pattabhiraman is a better film. Food adulteration is an issue that needs to be addressed. And Pattabhiraman is a bland attempt to achieve that.
The mediocrity of almost all the Kannan Thamarakkulam movies and the lackluster nature of almost all the recent Jayaram movies may give you a feeling that Pattabhiraman is a better film.
Green: Recommended Content
Orange: The In-Between Ones
Red: Not Recommended
