“Thiruvambady Thamban” from director Padmakumar is a big let down. The director who started of his career with movies of content is now seems to be following the typical Malayalam film formula for commercial success. “Thiruvambady Thamban” is almost like a rubber band. A very small and irrelevant topic stretched out and added with masalas.
The movie is about the father and son Thivambady Maathan and Thiruvambady Thamban. Both are elephant lovers. In a particular occasion the main elephant they used to bring for the ulsavam at the temple at their home land couldnt be brought due to some back stage play by their enemies. They decide to go to Gajamela at Sonepur and get a new elephant. On their way back they decides to stay at Madurai for a break. During this visit a drunk Maathan does some foolish things and at the end of it the brother of Shakthivel, a Gunda and Political power of that area gets killed. The main content is about Shakthivel finding Maathan and taking revenge.
Just like Shikkaar, the first of the movie has barely anything it. Just some old jokes and usual drama scenes with no real life in them. The sequences were Jayaram gets married n all felt like so stupid. The intention of these sequences was to show the bonding of the father and son, but the way they captured it was totally out of the feel. The second half contains the entire story actually. But as the intention of the villain is too simple and straight forward, all the usual ways of catching Maathan makes the movie a tiring watch testing our patience at most of the occasions. I think the makers are confused about how to portray Jayaram’s role in the movie. Even though the title of the movie is “Thiruvambady Thamban”, Thamban doesnt have that much charm in the screenplay. He was given Masala Action hero type intro (which really didnt work) and after that he was visualized as a typical normal Jayaram character. The heroine’s character didnt had much other than the gorgeous get up in the “Aaranu Nee” song.
Performance wise no one really disappointed. Jayaram did his part neatly with a good rendering Thrissur language. It was a pleasure to see Jagathy in a full fledged role as Maathan. His dubbing at times annoys. Haripriya found it difficult to bring expressions to her face. Kishor did an impressive debut in Malayalam as Shakthivel. Nedumudi, TG Ravi and the rest of the cast were convincing.
Technically, Padmakumar miserably fails to make this movie a watchable one. The main reason for this failure is the script which never really had anything it. There wasnt much smoothness and freshness for the screenplay by Suresh Babu. Only dialogs can not make a movie a watchable one. Ouseppachan scores some gorgeous music. Manoj Pillai comes up with a good piece of cinematography.
Overall, “Thiruvambady Thamban” is a disappointing product from Padmakumar – Suresh Babu team. It is sad to see Padmakumar going after mere commercial success. My rating for “Thiruvambady Thamban” is 2/5.
Green: Recommended Content
Orange: The In-Between Ones
Red: Not Recommended
