Thattumpurath Achuthan

It is so disheartening to realize that a director like Lal Jose can’t really sense the sensibility of an evolved audience while choosing a script. Thattumpurath Achuthan is one movie that would have sounded as an average entertainer even if it was made a decade ago. Depending too much on the dialogue jokes, this Sindhuraj script is outdated at its core. With a watchable first half followed by a disappointingly scattered second half, Thattumpurath Achuthan should be a wakeup call for the director, writer and the actor.

Achuthan is this simple decent young guy in a village who is an ardent follower of Lord Krishna. At one point in life, Achuthan gets wrongly accused as a thief and that black mark haunts him. And in another situation he assumes the duty of delivering justice to a girl who was being blackmailed by a guy. Thattumpurath Achuthan is basically showing us the solution of both these problems in Achuthan’s life.

In the second half, there is a portion where Achuthan is getting stuck in the Thattumpuram of the heroine’s house for a while. To be precise it is from that point this okay kind of film started to lose its grip. Till that point, even though there is nothing novel is happening on screen, there is a sense of passable feel like a Pullipulikalum Aattinkuttiyum. But post that there are too many things happening on screen and the screenplay seems to be clueless on how to include all that and yet make it entertaining. The movie gets bombarded by songs and comedy subplots and none of it was making it exciting. These are the kinds of movies that aren’t willing to allow the viewers to evolve.

Kunchako Boban is so one dimensional with his character selections these days that the only way to differentiate his characters is by looking at his costume. Hareesh Kanaran is perhaps the next most important character here who as the hero’s companion was fine. Vijayaraghavan was okay as the eccentric negative shaded character. The heroine Sravana doesn’t really have much space here to perform. Shajon goes back to his comedy avatar. Bindu Panicker, Nedumudi Venu, Adhish Praveen, Kochu Preman etc. are there in the star cast.

Lal Jose as a filmmaker has tried his best to present this movie in the most colorful manner. The typical ingredients of festival entertainer are there for sure. But it is actually the script that is the villain here. Hero getting misunderstood and proving his innocence and people praising him at the end is an idea that people have started to mock these days. And yet they have repeated that same thing along with another subplot involving cheating and blackmailing. If your key plot points are these, even James Cameron will have a tough time making it look fresh and engaging. Roby Varghese Raj’s frames are really good. Deepankuran’s songs also make an impression. But the abundance of songs in the film was a demerit. The stunt choreography was pathetic.

Thattumpurath Achuthan would have been a passable entertainer if that second half had clarity and freshness. With too many plot elements converging at one point without any grace, this clichéd “family movie” is ultimately a dull and forgettable experience.

Rating: 2/5

By Aswin Bharadwaj

Founder and editor of Lensmen Reviews.

View all of Aswin Bharadwaj's posts.