Munnariyippu - Movie Review

Directed by Venu

Produced by Renjith for Gold Coin Motion Picture Company

Screenplay by Unni R

Story by Venu

Music by Bijibal

Cinematography Venu

Edited by Beena Paul

Cast

Mammootty as C.K. Raghavan

Aparna Gopinath as Anjali Arakkal

Joy Mathew as Chandraji

Nedumudi Venu

Prathap Pothan

Renji Panicker

Joshy Mathew

Sreeraman

Sudheesh

Saiju Kurup

Went to watch the movie after hearing lots of positive reviews, and (only) because of that I felt slightly disappointed once the movie ended. 'Munnariyippu', ('Warning', even though the tag line reads 'The Deadline') is the story of CK Raghavan a convict who has been in prison for the past 20 years, spenting more time than what he was sentenced for. Anjali who enters the scene to ghost write the Jail Superintend, instead becomes more interested in CK's case, cause as he always says she too believes that he is innocent.
CK finallyy gets released and Anjali take him under her his protection, only to get the materials she need to pen a book on him, for which she had signed a contract with a huge publishing company. CK's inability to write brings trouble for Anjali as pressures for all quarters begin to crumble her. Will CK help Anjali finish the book, will we get to know the 'truth' etc forms the rest of the story.

The film begins interestingly and manages to grab our attention from the word go. The build up to the story is very good and by interval time the story is setup nicely. In the second half the writing looses its grip as it keeps on beating around the bush. Even with 115min run time it drags considerably in the 2nd half. adding to the woe was the completely unnecessary cameo by Prithviraj. The film do end with a shocking climax, but felt asif they just wanted to fill the screen time with random scenes till it reach a decent run time before shocking the audience with the climax, even though it got opposite reaction from the crowd.

The film is meant for serious movie goers who like to think deep into movies. The might be able to find the 'reasons' for things depicted in the movie which sadly goes unexplained in the film. 'Munnariyippu' may not be a majority's cup of tea but surely I will recommend this if u want to try something new, than the run of the mill stuff generally offered. The critics have unanimously given +ve reviews, but going by the audience response looks like the people are on the opposite corner this time.

Aparna is the character that drives the movie forward and gets more screen time. She excelled as Anjali , hope gets much better roles in the future to 'perform'. Mammootty had to underplay his actions and emotions to portray CK which he as always did beautifully. This is indeed one of the best outing of him in recent times, making the film a must watch for the fans of the legend's 'acting'. Rest of the cast also did good job. Evven though Unni's script had flaws the dialogues were very good. Venu directed the film very well too, kudos for not resorting to art house movie type narration. The BG score is a huge turn off. Gives a feel that we are watch an art movie event though the narration is much faster.

Rating 2.75/5

Recommending for serious movie lovers, thinkers and fans of Mammootty's acting !!