Indian Language Malayalam Feature Film titled "Maraykkar Arabikkadalinte Simham" certified on 24/12/2019 by the Central Board of Film Certification, India.
This review has been written and edited by Anoop Prathapan.
Category - Entertainment, Movie Review
Indian Language Malayalam Feature Film
Theatre Release date 02/12/2021
Amazon Prime Release date 17/12/2021
Directed by Priyadarshan
Music (Songs) by Ronnie Raphael
Produced by Antony Perumbavoor, Santhosh T. Kuruvila, Dr. Roy C.J.
Theatrical Running time 181.07 minutes
Original movie certified for theatrical release by the CBFC as U/A in the Indian subcontinent for Mr. Malekudy Joseph Antony, (M/s Aashirvad Cinemas) Ernakulam, Kerala.
Before we look at the actual review, I would like to list out the Malayalam films with over 180 minutes of running time, in descending order.
Kerala Varma Pazhassi Raja (2009) 200 minutes
Dubai (2001) 198 minutes
The King and the Commissioner (2012) 190 minutes
Valiyaperunnaalu (2019) 188 minutes
The King (1995) 182 minutes
Kammara Sambhavam (2018) 182 minutes
Maraykkar Arabikkadalinte Simham (2021) 181 minutes
So yes, that is it – we are about to talk about the seventh-longest feature film in Malayalam.
I am a die-hard fan of Priyadarshan but this movie was one cinematic holocaust. Sorry to dishearten the readers right at the start, but I do not find a better one-word in English to define the 181-minute debacle. Veteran filmmaker Priyadarshan struggled both with the script for which he paired up with Ani I V Sasi, the son of late filmmaker I V Sasi (who also doubled up as his first assistant director in this movie) and later with its execution.
The following makes this movie a terrible watch: -
An irksome screenplay written by two self-christened experts, with as many gratuitous elements as in a third-grade Malayalam feature film that would be made by an amateur, newbie filmmaker.
Copy pasted war and sea sequences from internationally acclaimed movies like Troy, Pirates of the Caribbean, Brave Heart, and the like. Scenes that are redone, inspired by the 2018 pan-Indian classic, Bahubali 2. VFX should blend with the narrative to provide the viewer with wholesome entertainment. In this movie, Priyadarshan seems to have told his son to do X amount of mandatory visual effects, come-what-may.
Umpteen day-for-night shots which are technically evident on screen
Veterans like Mukesh, Innocent, Ganesh Kumar – who are Priyadarshan’s regulars doing scenes that are the epitome of ennui. Mukesh must seriously think of regaining his physical fitness or should stop acting altogether. In what must be thespian Nedumudi Venu’s last outing, he looks extremely tired and forced as the Zamorin. Almost all of the actors are seniors – Priyadarshan’s regulars - and all of them look so tired and exhausted in every scene, especially in scenes depicting the Zamorin’s Royal Darbar.
Dialogues that are long and boring are spoken in a slang that does not sync with the period or the place. Mohanlal’s dialogues are unendurable at umpteen points. I could not digest Maraykkar challenging the Portuguese saying, “nee cheraykum” which is such a wrong colloquial third-grade Malayalam phrase to be used in a historical drama. I seriously do not embrace the cinematic logic by which a 50-film-old, experienced director like Priyadarshan felt Mohanlal, with his overweight BMI would fit the bill as the Zamorin’s warlord.
Pranav Mohanlal, though not perfect as the young Maraykkar, impressed in parts. However, I am still confused about how Maraykkar, who was left-handed in his younger ages grew up to be right-handed. He must have had co-dominant cerebral hemispheres by which he must have been ambidextrous or maybe he must have suffered a significant insult to his dominant hemisphere at an age which is not shown in the movie, by which he trained himself to be a right-hander later. I feel Fahad Fazil as the younger Maraykkar would have been a better choice, provided he gets at least an hour in a well-crafted screenplay to perform.
A talented actor like Prabhu being taken advantage of in the movie for acting like a clown hovering around Mohanlal at all times. Why do such senior actors consent to look like a fool, especially in other languages? Other than for engaging the Hindi audience, I personally do not feel Sunil Shetty needed to be roped in for the role he played. Unni Mukundan or even Prithviraj, with their otherwise underutilized physiques, could have done it to perfection.
Songs that are stuffed in at the most unsolicited junctures, making the turgid dramaturgy even more harrowing. (Here, I meant just the placement of the songs in the narrative and not the quality of the songs per se)
The background score in the closing sequence that reminisces one of the evergreen theme music from the Speilberg 1997 classic, Titanic.
Extremely poor editing by Ayyappan Nair who makes everyone sensible feel, he must have slept off at the editing desk, thereby carelessly retaining at least (avoidable) 30 minutes of footage.
Below average subtitles which were in most places a literal translation of the text spoken on screen. The songs were subtitled even worse.
Saving graces
Hareesh Peradi as Mangattachan was the best performer in this visual diarrhoea which had a lot of actors, mostly tucked in for no reason. Hareesh did his part so convincingly.
Actor Jay J. Jikrit who enacted the Chinese warrior and the love interest of Aarcha (played by Keerthi Suresh) performed well, even though he had not many dialogues to voice.
Manju Warrier did her best as Sainaba, the widowed wife of one of Maraykkar’s henchmen, who died accidentally, though there was nothing in the screenplay for an actor of her calibre to perform.
Excellent dubbing for "Action King" Arjun, by Malayalam actor/dancer Vineeth - whose voice only grows young and powerful as his age advances. Arjun is the only actor roped in from other states who impressed on the acting front - he had a short and powerful role to portray - that of the Mangattachan's elder son.
Thiranavukkarishu (I do not know if this is how he spells his name) did reasonable work behind the camera shooting all that the director wanted him to.
Songs composed by Ronnie Raphael, son of veteran musician O.V. Raphael, who made some safe, Priyadarshan-Mohanlal-friendly-tunes. Unfortunately, the good songs have been placed in such portions of the narrative that the viewers are forced to bear it as part of the already stretched-out proceedings. In other words, those were the right songs in the wrong movie. I could match this plight with the Malayalam movie Symphony which I presume, has Deepak Dev’s best music he ever made, but for a movie that faltered big time. The track ilaveyil alakalil ozhukum rendered by M.G. Sreekumar and Shreya Ghoshal in Malayalam and corresponding tracks by Sathya Prakash and Chinmayi in all other languages is one of the best I have heard in recent times.
So that is "Maraykkar Arabikkadalinte Simham". A wasted effort altogether, spending all the 100 crore Indian Rupees, the producers claim to have spent.
The following would have transformed the initial thought into a better final product: -
Though the initial story idea was first listened to by ace scenarist T. Damodaran, he passed away after the project was on. After his death, the makers should have stood firm for a screenplay crafted by none other than the legendary M.T. Vasudevan Nair for such a huge, once-in-a-lifetime project and should NEVER EVER have taken a chance with someone like Ani I V Sasi.
The million-dollar realization that Mohanlal at 61 and in his current frame, would never fit in as Maraykkar. Kerala has plenty of actors to do any role, these days. The smaller movies that become successful are a testament to that. A better and careful selection of actors for each role would have done wonders to the movie more than an on-screen family get-together of the director's friends and regulars.
Better and careful editing of the contents by an experienced editor like Sreekar Prasad or Anthony, supervised by another director, probably like Hariharan, who is more experienced than Priyadarshan at making such historical movies. I do not know if such a concept of raw footage created by one director being edited by another director exists anywhere in world cinema, but I feel, such a concept would give movies a different touch altogether.
I seriously wish to know why and how this movie with umpteen flaws was awarded the Best Feature Film title of 2019 at the National Film Awards. It has nothing, practically nothing in it to be even the best in Kerala, let alone India. I remember starting a night-long discussion in my school WhatsApp group questioning how this movie became the best in India, long before even I saw it. I had a lot of criteria even then, by which I felt so. Now, after I watched it, I am only proud of my cinematic instincts and my analytical ability with respect to Malayalam movies and technicians. Such granting of awards makes the common man lose trust in such enterprises altogether. A Tamil reviewer rightly asked “National Award கொடுத்தாங்களா......இவர்களே வாங்கின்னு வந்தாங்களா” (Was this movie awarded the title or did these people purchase it by themselves?)
It is just a tedious one-time watch, even for a Priyadarshan-Mohanlal admirer like me, who still repeatedly watches Chithram, Kilukkam, Vandanam, or even a lame slap-stick comedy like Kakkakkuyil. Their previous big-budget flick, Kalapani was a lot better, though made a quarter-century ago with much lesser cinematic technology than what is available now.
My rating 4/10
Comments