‘Puzhu’ movie review: Mammootty’s menacing presence anchors this important debut film with a few failings

When Malayalam superstars play characters with detrimental shades, most of the time, one can anticipate issues to take a flip in direction of the climax, revealing the saint who had hidden in plain sight, in wolf’s clothes. This has been the case apart from a number of outstanding movies over the previous few a long time, a lot in order that superstars taking part in detrimental characters may give away the plot twist early on.

Nonetheless, in Ratheena’s debut movie Puzhu, there is no such thing as a fast whitewash job on the finish, neither is there any redeeming high quality thrust upon the character performed by Mammootty. For a lot of the movie, we expertise the identical emotions that his younger school-going son experiences in his presence. No, it’s not affection or respect, however a powerful sense of concern combined with revulsion.

It isn’t straightforward to place a finger on what actually makes the character behave in such a means, particularly for the reason that script by Harshad, Sharfu and Suhas, reveals solely the naked bits and items of his background or previous till the final second, after we get an overflow of knowledge. The casteist hatred that he shows in direction of his sister (Parvathy)’s husband Kuttappan (Appuni Sasi) is less complicated to grasp, however not so the perspective in direction of his son (Grasp Vasudev) nor his fixed concern of somebody being on the market to hazard his life.

The oppressive father has constructed a slightly sickening routine along with his son, which entails recounting the minute particulars of the boy’s day and them watching collectively an outdated residence video, which he pauses proper on the level the place he stops the boy’s now-deceased mom from choosing the toddler up when he falls on the bottom. He comes throughout as somebody who strongly believes that he means nicely with every of his poisonous or repulsive actions, be it in direction of his son or his sister. One can virtually hear him utter, “That is on your personal good,” after one in every of his terrorising acts in opposition to his son or the sister.

The entire movie is constructed round this character with a really hazy previous, that in a few of the passages the place nothing substantial occurs, one wonders whether or not the makers too have been groping at nighttime as we have been. Even a touch about his previous job, which has an necessary half to play in the entire story, is introduced in out of nowhere on the climax that it doesn’t go away us with the supposed impact. In reality, the entire climax passage virtually appears disconnected from the remainder of the narrative, which slowly however efficiently builds the anticipation. The elements the place the protagonist and one other set of characters discuss a deal gone mistaken and maintain conciliatory talks solely function digressions.

Having mentioned that, Puzhu marks an necessary debut from somebody who’s clearly not able to stroll the crushed path. Ratheena’s filmmaking is marked by its economic system and quiet management, which provides to the horror of a few of the father-son sequences. One solely wished for the script to be not so deliberately hazy at some factors, although it doesn’t maintain something again in aiming barbs at casteists.

However, Puzhu in the long run belongs to Mammootty, whose menacing display screen presence and earnest efficiency holds collectively the movie even in its weakest factors. It’s all the time a pleasure to see superstars breaking out of the tiresome mould that they’ve been caught in for years, and rediscovering their glowing talents which endeared them to the viewers within the first place.

Puzhu is at the moment streaming on SonyLIV