Gopika Ramesh – Movies of the Soul

Vampire Owl: I have been thinking about changing my identity.

Vampire Bat: The vampire one or the owl one?

Vampire Owl: The undead one to be exact.

Vampire Bat: You are already dead and returned. That cannot change.

Vampire Owl: Dr. Frankenstein has changed his identity multiple times.

Vampire Bat: He never had any real identity.

Vampire Owl: Yes, Frankenstein, the genius scientist.

Vampire Bat: The pseudo-scientist, to be exact.

Vampire Owl: He is more, for he has invented vampire mechanics.

Vampire Bat: The only thing he has invented is pure nonsense.

[Gets a chilli chicken pizza and three cups of Darjeeling tea].

What is the movie about? :: A recently engaged young woman Emy John (Nilja K Baby) finds herself blackmailed by a man named Amar Felix (Arjun Radhakrishnan) with the help of a techie and occasional hacker Nakul Sachdev (Vishak Nair), as he had recorded her half-naked through a mobile phone kept in a changing room. He threatens to spread her nude videos all over internet unless she gives him three lakhs to which she agrees, but after many blackmails of random people, this time he finds himself facing a mysterious individual who kills him in his own warehouse which looks abandoned from outside. Alisha Abdul Salam (Trisha Krishnan) is the only witness to the murder as she had seen the person coming out of the warehouse after burning it, as she was passing through. CI Allen Jacob (Vinay Rai) is assigned the case, and decides to keep the witness in his home for protection, as advised by DYSP Dinesh Chandran (Aju Varghese). They feel the immediate need to get a sketch of the killer done as Alisha says that she has seen the face clearly, but protecting her is the top priority.

So, what happens with the events here as we just keep looking? :: Allen is helped by his highly influential friend Supriya Gopal (Mandira Bedi) who provide him with much needed information. Meanwhile, Haran Shankar (Tovino Thomas) is a part-time karate instructor and a genius in multiple subjects who suffers from OCD, and lives with his sister Devika Shankar (Archana Jose Kavi) and half-sister Neerja Sudip (Gopika Ramesh). Allen, after seeing a sketch made by Haran, decides that he should be the one to bring the identity of the killer to light. As Allen asks Haran to make a sketch, and as he does so with the help of the description given by Alisha, a few more things come to light, including the fact that Alisha can no longer identify human faces after an accident which followed the murder. This makes things further complicated, as finding the killer seems almost impossible, and Amar’s past also seems to catch up to the situation. It seems that things are just getting more and more complicated, but for how long?

The defence of Identity :: There is a certain amount of style related to how this movie looks, and the visuals remain stunning throughout its run. The technical strength is visible right there. We have not seen such over-reachers among the movies of this industry, unless it is Lucifer and its Empuraan, but this one has managed that extra load quite well. The movie nicely builds the tension, which keeps us interested. The twists are always present, and some of them are rather too nice. The action sequences are maintained well and kept under control without being overdone. The beginning of the movie was so good that we are attached to the proceedings so early. We wonder where the connections would be made, and that happens nicely too. The final fights are also well-executed, maybe qualifying as among the best-done moments. The performances remain of top quality, not really holding back even because of character complications. There is a certain amount of polishing that is visible there, moving further ahead of the usual movies. The background music also remains something of interest.

The claws of flaw :: The movie just seems to have taken so much for granted. After starting so well, and ending with a deviation, but in an interesting way, the middle part seems to have lost in the process. There are so many moments which seems over-stretched, and we feel that there was no need for that much of a detail in between, and the explanations which go long, just gets longer as we see and experience less twists in real-time than what we hear and find in flashbacks. The big reveal about the main character feels like a rather forced addition. The characters are not given the importance that they need, and the hero is just given that push. Many characters just come of nowhere and become part of that world of twists, making us not that interested in them. Even the leading lady is not given that strength and feels misplaced as a character. The other female characters are also not given that much of a background. The emotional depth is not that much there, and the pace is also uneven, often also struggling with the pace. Then the antagonist is also pushed out of nowhere right after a twist.

The performers of the soul :: Tovino Thomas leads the way here in style. When thinking about that one action hero of the industry, he comes first to the mind. We have seen that even with superheroes of Minnal Murali and Lokah Chapter 1: Chandra. Tovino handles this role in a way that we will remember, and gets into the genre really well as expected. Vinay Rai becomes a fine addition around here as he shines in the form of a strong antagonist, someone who aligns with the overall mood of the movie and the twists. Aju Varghese’s serious police role is a joy to watch, and it is to be noted that this time, the character do not follow the stereotypes. Trisha Krishnan comes back to Malayalam after Hey Jude with Nivin Pauly, and here she plays a main character and has just enough to do as the leading actress. Shammi Thilakan and Vishak Nair have some interesting things to do here. Archana Jose Kavi and Gopika Ramesh shine in their comparatively smaller roles, and Nilja K Baby contributes well in a small role too. It was good to see Mandira Bedi around too while Giju John and Sujith Shankar gets the due in the final minutes.

How it finishes :: This one was that opportunity with scope for big heights to become one memorable thriller above many more. Known as The Sketch Artist in Hindi on Jio Hotstar, this one would work better with that particular audience. If you like such stylish thrillers having action, twists, and a lot of ambition behind, this will feel a lot grand, as you remember from movies like Christopher. But that big a plot and well-developed characters would not be there that much for your attention here. Creating characters our of nowhere and using them here and there with twists that sometimes work like boomerang might not be for everyone’s love. But seeing the cast of this movie, you know that the movie will always be capable enough. It is available in Hindi on Amazon Prime Video going by the name, The Sketch Artist, even though one would be wondering why that name even came into picture. Unlike some other movies, this Hindi version is very well-created, and you might wish to have a look at that one.

Release date: 31st December 2024
Running time: 158 minutes
Directed by: Akhil Paul, Anas Khan
Starring: Tovino Thomas, Trisha Krishnan, Vinay Rai, Aju Varghese, Archana Jose Kavi, Sujith Shankar, Nilja K Baby, Giju John, Gopika Ramesh, Shammi Thilakan, Vishak Nair, Major Ravi, Asha Madathil, Mandira Bedi, Arjun Radhakrishnan, Mahima Radhakrishnan, Shinu Shyamalan, Litty Thomas, Vriddhi Vishal, Mohan Thankam, Sethu Lekshmi, Adam Sadiq, Akhil Paul, Anas Khan

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<<< Click here to go to the previous South Indian film review.

<<< Click here to go to the previous Malayalam film review.

@ Cemetery Watch
✠ The Vampire Bat.

What is the movie about? :: Jason (Mathew Thomas) is a student in plus one humanities, who manages to get to science stream as one of the students in the class wished to escape from the baffling science, thus exchanging their places. He joins the science batch, but doesn’t really manage to pick up the pace, even though he is able to get into the school cricket team as a medium pace bowler and play frequently in tournaments. Despite being branded as the studious boy in the early stages as he came from a reputed central syllabus school, he soon proved to be below average or sometimes even worse in his studies. He finds some new friends who are like him, and also falls in love with Keerthy (Anaswara Rajan), a girl from the same class, a relationship which stays one-sided, much to his dismay, as he hopes to make some progress in it. There is another girl named Steffy (Gopika Ramesh), but he feels that Keerthy is his true love.

So, what happens with the events to follow? :: But this is the least of his problems as he has problems with another student from the nearby class room. Still, the biggest of his problems is something else, the new Malayalam teacher who comes in the place of the teacher on leave – Ravi Padmanabhan (Vineeth Sreenivasan) is the new teacher whom everyone loves. He keeps teaching in an interesting manner, with stories and even stops other teachers from punishing students. He gets a heroic image in the eyes of the students, and is appreciated by the Principal who considers Ravi to be of the same wavelength as he is. Jason feels that he is a fraud as Ravi doesn’t teach much in the class, and everything that he does is more or less attention-seeking. Keerthy as well as his best friends admires Ravi too, and he has a cold war against the new teacher who seems to have a prejudice against him too. How will his school life progress now?

The defence of Thannermathan Dinangal :: It can be seen that Thannermathan Dinangal doesn’t deviate from its focus at any moment, and this focus is the main things that leads to its success. The movie feels realistic and funny throughout its run, and it also does come up with some nostalgia. We remember how June did the same effectively some time back, and here we are there again. It feels close to life with ease, and the kids of the school are all too good – we notice most of them and we remember them with ease, as they keep coming up with something to memorize. The music is really good, and the song “Ee Jaathikka Thottam, Ee Jaathi Ninte Nottam” stands out with ease, not just with the lyrics and music, but with what we see on the screen with the two youngsters doing a fantastic job. It is one song which can go on to become the song of the year along with a few others.

The claws of flaw :: Some parts of the movie does go a little too much, especially with Vineeth’s teacher character. There is the feeling that this kind of teacher is rather unrealistic, and we are immediately reaching for our dose of willing suspension of disbelief, but in a realistic movie, it is not that easy to use and work on our imagination. The movie could have also shortened the time spent outside the school, and some of the outside characters make less or no impact at all. There are also those extra moments which could have been added, as we look back to our school days. But considered the movies like Oru Adaar Love dealing with plus two life, we understand how difficult it is to come up with a movie like Thannermathan Dinangal – it is even more difficult to have these work for all kinds of audience, and as it seems to be achieved, there is no more searching through the flaws.

The performers of the soul :: Mathew Thomas of the Kumbalangi Nights fame plays the main character in this movie, and he excels as the protagonist. His expressions and dialogues are all too good, and he keeps on impressing us throughout he movie with realistic performance. There is no moment when you feel that he is not living through that school kid. There is the certainty of a lot more coming up as far as this youngster is concerned. We remember him having played a perfect role in his previous movie, and we are always ready to wait for his next movie. Anaswara Rajan of Udaharanam Sujatha fame plays the female lead, and after the recently released Evidey, she has another role in uniform, this time in plus two. She is also natural with her performance here, and the emotional moments are also handled with a certain amount of maturity.

Further performers of the soul :: Then you see Vineeth Sreenivasan doing the teacher character in style – the character might look a little bit strange, but he gives life and energy to that one in an admirable way. We don’t see him in movies that often these days, and we always need a little bit of him at regular intervals – this movie has him back. We had Aravindante Athidhikal last year with the feel-good, and here he has the humour in his hands. Irshad plays the principal of the school nicely. Nisha Sarangh of Uppum Mulakum fame is left to do nothing much here. All the kids here also come up with impressive performances, especially the one who played the main characters’ best friend and the one who has a problem with our protagonist. The watermelon juice from the shop outside the gates of the school and the nutmeg garden contributes as characters in a special way – we see them, and we remember them later, like William Wordsworth would, with the daffodils.

How it finishes :: This kind of a feeling was earlier achieved only with something like Philips and the Monkey Pen, but that was with smaller kids – June had gone beyond the school days as it progressed. Thannermathan Dinangal comes up with the journey that everyone can enjoy, which is the reason why it is still running with housefull shows, something which bigger superstar movies struggle to achieve. It has been a difficult job to find tickets for this movie during this weekend too, and we can be certain that the movie is here to stay. If after watching this movie, you feel the need to go back to your school again, there is no real surprise about it. Thannermathan Dinangal is not a movie of one generation, but of more than one, and you avoid the use of mobile phones, and change the drinks – you get back to the eighties or nineties with ease – well, after all, the 1990s kids nostalgia which have been circulating on the internet has been clearly applicable to the 1980s kids! This one is universal too! I leave you with this beautiful song from the movie.

Release date: 26th July 2019
Running time: 136 minutes
Directed by: Girish AD
Starring: Mathew Thomas, Anaswara Rajan, Vineeth Sreenivasan, Sajin Cherukayil, Irshad, Nisha Sarangh, Kichu Tellus, Shabareesh Varma, Gopika Ramesh