Chattambinaadu

Movie - Chattambinaadu (Malayalam)
Director - Shafi
Cast - Mammootty, Lakshmi Rai, Vinu Mohan, Mythili, Meenakshi, Siddique, Suraaj Venjarammood, Salimkumar, Manoj K Jayan, Saikumar, Janardhanan and others.
Music - Alex Paul
Cinematography - Manoj Pilla
Editing - V Saajan
Art Director - Joseph Nellickal
Story, Screenplay, Dialogues - Benny P Nayarambalam
Release Date - 25th December 2009


If you're not yet tired of the innumerable flicks with a tamil/kannada nativity shot in Pollachi, based on the same formula, you might just end up liking this film. I had written a post with 30 steps to make a Tamil mass movie. The same can be done for this one. But this movie is not worth it to take so much efforts in writing that. Even the makers have made it only as a concoction of all their films. Thus, we get a mixture of Rajamanikyam, Thommanum Makkalum,Annan Thambi and even Gillie. The only difference is brought by Mammootty. If he was a buffalo seller who spoke in a crass Thiruvananthapuram accent inRajamanikyam, here he is a rich Kannada rogue who speaks Malayalam with a heavy Kannada accent. Other than that, most of it is the same.


The story roughly goes like this - Chembattu Naadu had officially turned into Chattambi Naadu because of the several notorious activities and fights that kept happening there. Siddique and Manoj K Jayan are members of 2 of the biggest families there and are at constant loggerheads because of an old flashback (Cliche No.1). Manoj K Jayan is the weaker one, so he seeks the help of Veerendra Mallayya (Mammootty) to buy his house from him and give him money to pay back his debts. (Cliche No.2). Mammootty also has a reason in coming back to this place, something which connects him also to the old flashback. (Biggest Cliche in the movie :P). Mammootty has a trusted aide, Vinu Mohan, who is obviously younger and more educated than him. (a la Rahman in Rajamanikyam). As soon as he lands in the village, trouble starts brewing between him and Siddique and Siddique waits for the right opportunity to get back at him. In the meanwhile, Lakshmi Rai, the heroine is also introduced in a song and constantly fights with our hero, to finally fall head over heels for him. The rest of the story moves on very predictably with the addition of goondas like Salimkumar and Suraaj for comic relief.


There is absolutely no novelty in the story, and the movie holds interest only because of the presence of Mammootty. He looks dapper in his white and white costumes, Ray Ban glasses and white shoes. And with a really funny Kannada accent, he makes sure that the audience do not get reminded of the 100 odd cliches in the movie. Even though his character, and the change in accent were all first brought in the much more effective and entertainingRajamanikyam, the actor manages to succeed in his portrayal of this Kannada man also. He is the only good thing in the movie. Siddique repeats his villainous act seen in several other films and has even the same look he sported in Madambi. Manoj K Jayan plays a useless guy, whose destiny is to be saved by our great hero, yet again. Salimkumar and Suraaj Venjarammood try to provide comic relief with many stale and old jokes, which rarely work. Thankfully, Suraaj has not used many of his vulgar jokes in this one, even though he tries to show that side of him at some parts of the movie. Lakshmi Rai looks beautiful and has precious little to do. Mythili hardly has any dialogue. Meenakshi was the better one among the lot, but then she gets married off to Boban Alummoodan (whose main job in movies is to marry females whose marriages dont happen due to various reasons. :P) and is conveniently forgotten after that. Janardhanan, Saikumar, Vijayaraghavan and all are just there to be part of the ridiculous flashback, something which we have been seeing in all such movies.


When would our filmmakers get enough of this Pollachi location!! That same house is shown in a 100 movies, right fromThenkasippattanam to Love in Singaporeand has been the main location in most of them. The stories are based in this Tamil Nadu-Kerala-Karnataka border and are mostly about goondas or rowdies. Lots of gags in the name of comedy, fight scenes, colourful songs with Tamil extras, stupid villagers, menacing villain and a God-like hero with a troubled past. This is the formula for most of them. Movies likeRajamanikyam were at least successful in giving the right treatment to this formula and making a very entertaining film out of it. Now, yet another such film is being shot there, which stars Mammoootty along with the younger actor Prithviraj - Pokkiri Raja. Lets hope at least that one has to offer some difference in treatment. Benny P Nayarambalam, who used to write very entertaining scripts like Kalyanaraman, Chanthupottu, Kunjikkoonan, Thommanum Makkalum and Chotta Mumbai, has turned into a very mediocre writer off-late with films like Lollipop and Chattambinaadu. Shafi has not taken any extra effort to make this movie different from all the above mentioned movies based on the same formula. I think all their attention was diverted towards Mammootty and his accent, more than the whole movie itself.


Alex Paul's music is very sub-standard. Lakshmi Rai's introduction song sounds like a readymade copy of the Jassie Gift song 'Themma Themma Themmadikkatte'. Manoj Pilla's cinematography and Joseph Nellickal's art direction were very good. There is nothing more to say about the other technical aspects of the film.


The success of this movie proves that the audience are not yet bored of these formula films in Malayalam. While the Tamil audience have begun showing indifference to such formula films (the most recent example being the lukewarm business of Vettaikkaran) and started appreciating different films, our people still loathe such formula films in our language and even in Tamil and the dubbed Telugu movies. (People are more excited about Vettaikkaran and Arya 2 in Kerala than in Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh respectively). There is nothing wrong in making entertainers. But making the same movie again and again, without even changing the setting and only changing the characters and characterizations, is a really sad thing. If such movies keep becoming hits, then more such movies would keep coming. And our superstars would again be forced to act in such films. Why blame them when the audience themselves, along with the producers and distributors are asking for more such movies?? Disappointing!!! Watch only if you're a hard-core Mammootty fan and if you're not yet tired of these formula movies.


Rating - 2.5/5 (Just for the entertainment that Mammootty provides).

Ividam Swargamanu

Movie - Ividam Swargamanu(Malayalam)

Director - Rosshan Andrrews

Producer - Antony Perumbavoor

Cast - Mohanlal, Thilakan, Sreenivasan, Shankar, Lakshmi Rai, Lalu Alex, Jagathy Sreekumar, Kaviyoor Ponnamma, Sukumari, Lakshmi Gopalaswami, Priyanka Nair, Innocent and others.

Background Score - Gopi Sundar

Cinematography - R Diwakar

Editor - Ranjan Abraham
Art Director - Cyril Kuruvilla

Story, Screenplay, Dialogue - James Albert

Release Date - 25th December 2009

2009's Christmas has two superstar movies coming together after a long time. This one featuring Mohanlal and 'Chattambinadu' featuring Mammootty. The latter is a formula movie made for the masses in the regular format and this one promised to take us back to the good old times of Malayalam Cinema where our heroes were ordinary people, not superheroes or Chattambis. Rosshan Andrrews is one director everyone looks up to, in spite of having done only 2 films so far. But those 2 films are the reason behind this expectation out of him as one of the best new generation directors in Malayalam Cinema. The movie had a dream combination of Mohanlal and Thilakan, coming together after a long long time, setting aside all their long-term ego-clashes, to give us a great film. To add to that, there is a huge cast including Sreenivasan, Jagathy Sreekumar, Kaviyoor Ponnamma, Innocent, etc, all of whom have shared excellent chemistry with Mohanlal on screen. There were humungous expectations from the movie, and the end-result might have different impacts on different people. Lets get to the detailed review.

Mathews (Mohanlal) is a farmer who loves his crops and cattle as much as he loves his family. He lives a simple, happy and peaceful life with his father Jeremias (Thilakan), mother (Kaviyoor Ponnamma) and aunt (Sukumari). But the problem begins when a real estate mafia kingpin, Aluva Chandy (Lalu Alex) sets eyes on Mathew's farmlands. He wants to get that land at any cost and takes several steps towards that, whereas Mathews and Jeremias are very strong in their stand on not selling the farm, which is their life. But with more and more legal hassles coming their way, thanks to Chandy's political influence, they go through a rough time. Sunitha (Lakshmi Rai), an advocate and Betsy (Priyanka) are on the side of Mathews knowing that he has taken the right stand. But a goverment officer Maria (Lakshmi Goplaswami) doesnt really believe Mathews and his problems, because her marriage proposal had been rejected once by Mathews. The second half is all about the steps taken by a desparate Mathews to save his land from going into the wrong hands. And when the character of Sreenivasan joins the proceedings, things become much more interesting.

Watching Mohanlal in this movie is a delight. Nammude pazhaya Lalettan engum poyittilla ennullathinu thelivaanu, ee padam. ;) He reminds us of the golden period of Malayalam Cinema where he came as the common man and not a superhero. He brings back those lovely expressions, great, gentle smiles and wondrful body language through his character Mathews, who is nothing more than an innocent, ordinary farmer. The old Lalettan is certainly the USP of this movie. Watch out for his subtle acting in the scene where he gets emotional about his father and his helplessness to Lakshmi Rai, nobody other than him can do that perfectly. Like in the director's earlier film with Mohanlal, Udayanaanu  Thaaram, he underplays his part brilliantly and lets the negative character Lalu Alex hog the limelight, just like Sreenivasan did in UT. Thilakan has a short but strong presence in the movie as the righteous father Jeremias. It was simply great to see the best on-screen father and son in Malayalam back together after a long time. But Thilakan is hardly seen in the second half of the film. Sreenivasan, in a crucial role is very effective. But if the movie belongs to somebody else after Mohanlal, it is Lalu Alex. He gives his career-best performance as the manipulative, but slightly dimwitted villain Aluva Chandy. His character is perfectly etched out and reaches its peak towards the climax portions. Jagathy Sreekumar is exceptional in a short role. Shankar is good as Mathews' support system. Among the ladies, Priyanka is the best, followed by Lakshmi Goplaswami and then a mediocre performance from Lakshmi Rai, even though Lakshmi Rai has a great screen presence. Kaviyoor Ponnamma and Sukumari do not have much to do. Maniyan Pillai Raju shines in the climax. Innocent hams it up a bit.


Rosshan has managed to capture the innocence and nativity of the village and villagers of Kodanad very effectively. The whole setting of the movie takes us back to the good-old 80s and 90s. But the difference in film-making that he brought out through his 2 films - Udayanaanu Thaaram andNotebook, is missing in this one. As he could have done much more with this script. Also, the first half is quite slow, taking its own sweet time to establish things. In spite of that, he is able to hold the attention of the audience for 2 hours 45 minutes even without resorting to songs and other commerical elements. The guts he has shown by making a songless Mohanlal movie for a producer like Antony Perumbavoor, should definitely be appreciated. James Albert's script is well-written, but could have been more concise, getting to the point a little earlier. But the climax was certainly a master stroke from both these people. It is super-hilarious and absolutely effective. The story reminds one of the National Award winning 'Khosla Ka Ghosla' at times, but then takes a different route and reaches a completely innovative climax. A certain word used in the climax is sure to be a rage in the coming days. ;)


The movie is not devoid of negatives. First of all, the length could have been much shorter. The absence of songs didnt really matter, and if songs were there, it would have further affected the impact of the movie. The fight in the second half and the heroine angle in the end looked really forced in the movie, which was all about innocent people. (I guess they were included due to the insistence of the producer since I'm quite sure that Rosshan isnt the kind of person who would add such scenes just to play safe.) The much-hyped coming together of Mohanlal and Thilakan wasnt utilized fully and kept one wanting for more scenes featuring the two veterans. But compared to the positives, these negatives do not really matter.


Cinematography by Diwakar is really refreshing. He has captured the beautiful locales wonderfully. Background Score by Gopi Sundar is very minimal and could have been more effective. One expects more from him after some electrifying work in Sagar Alias Jacky. Ranjan Abraham could have trimmed a movie a little more. Art director Cyril Kuruvilla created the entire farmhouse at different locations and even cultivated an entire farm just for the movie, much in advance before the movie's shoot commenced. Amazing work!! 

The movie has a strong message and really good intentions. It has all the rights to be among the best of 2009 and fall into the category of 'Nalla Cinema', which is slowly becoming extinct in our industry. Families should love this movie and I hope the youth also would lap up this movie as the regular masss-masala movies have become inane and repetitive these days. Movies like these bring some fresh air and lots of hope to our industry. Mohanlal and Rosshan Andrrews are immediately starting with their big-budget extravaganzaCasanova, after completing this small, simple feel-good film. A huge thanks to James and Rosshan for brining back the 'common man' and his life back into our films and an even bigger thanks for showing us that the old Lalettan hasnt gone anywhere. It deserves a hig rating just for the sincerity and truthfulness put into it. :) :)


After watching this movie, one feels, 'Ividam theerchayayum swargamanu'. :) :)


Rating - 4/5