A tale of resilience – Pathonpatham Noottandu

This is a review of the movie Pathonpatham Noottandu written and edited by Dr. Anoop Prathapan and first published on the 8th of September 2022.

Director Vinayan has made a spectacular comeback to mainstream Malayalam cinema through his magnum opus titled “Pathonpatham Noottandu” released on the 8th of September 2022. It is a magnificent, visually elegant, technically flawless movie with a crisp screenplay and uncomplicated dialogues, both penned by the director himself.

Siju Wilson must be feeling rapturous today – his hard work learning kalarippayattu and horse riding and his heavy workouts for continuous six months has delivered its results on-screen. He enacts the protagonist Arattupuzha Velayudha Panikker/Chekavar an Ezhava warrior, who strove for the social upliftment of the backward classes of those times. Issues such as breast-tax and moustache tax imposed on the lower castes, Nair women of those times being married off to older men three times their age, have all been taken up.

Kayadu Lohar looks extraordinarily charming as Nangeli. She has been given a few scenes to demonstrate her emoting skills, including a few kalarippayattu fight sequences. Almost all of the actors have done a wonderful job enacting their roles the best possible way they could. However, I feel Nedumudi Venu could have been a better king of Travancore (than Anoop Menon) and Kalabhavan Mani could have been a better Chirukandan who could evoke a few peals of laughter, (than Senthil Krishna) had they both been alive for (just) a few more years. Veteran actor Indrans virtually lived the role of Nangeli’s father in the closing sequences. Producer Gokulam Gopalan has himself played a significant role as Velayudhan's grandfather, considerably well.

Cinematography by Shaji Kumar is top-class and so is editing by Vivek Harshan. Background score by Santhosh Narayanan is just okay. Ilaiyaraja would have been a better choice to do the re-recording in this period drama. Songs by M. Jayajandran are hummable. Senior actors Mohanlal and Mammooty have done voice-overs for the film.

Watch it to enjoy Siju Wilson’s evolution from a comedy actor to a mature actor taking-up serious roles like this, and for the overall craftsmanship of Vinayan.

My Rating 8.75/10