‘Pookkaalam’ movie review: A feel-good family entertainer with a novel theme – The Hindu

Happiness is Ganesh Raj’s calling card; one would wrestle to seek out an sad second in his work. Even the largest of crises would appear moderately inconsequential when handled light-heartedly. On the earth that he envisions, heat colors come out of each different body. Mild, feel-good music goes on and on within the background. Tears are principally out of happiness, moderately than sorrow. For that matter, his debut film itself was titled Aanandam (happiness).

Whereas Aanandam was set round a bunch of kids on a university journey, in his sophomore work Pookkaalam, it’s the older technology — a pair who’re practically 100 years outdated and have been married for eighty years — who takes centre stage. On the day of their granddaughter Elsy’s (Annu Antony) betrothal, Ittoop (Vijayaraghavan) by accident discovers an outdated letter written fifty years in the past. The letter threatens to forged a cloud on the glad event, bringing as much as the floor the household’s buried secrets and techniques

The novel theme is what drives a lot of the film, however Ganesh, who has additionally scripted it, ensures that it doesn’t tread on terrains which can be too scorching to deal with, simply stopping quick each time the film threatens to slide out of the feel-good zone. Effectively, it isn’t flawed to play to your strengths. It’s the form of materials which might have ended up as a heart-wrenching story if dealt with by another person.

A lot of Pookkaalam focuses on the nice and cozy relationship between Ittoop and his spouse Kochuthresia (KPAC Leela), and the massive prolonged household round them, at current. But, it takes periodic shifts to the previous, of their early days of struggles and private losses, which provides us an thought of the affect that the disaster would have on the close-knit household. The disaster additionally shines a lightweight on the disagreeable episodes that individuals wilfully neglect to maintain the ship crusing easily. Individuals who appear sober of their outdated age may need performed horrible issues up to now. At one level, Kochuthresia ominously tells Ittoop, “We’ve got been residing on this home for eighty years. If we dig deep round right here, we’d discover uncomfortable issues.”

Ganesh makes an attempt to stability each emotional second rapidly with a light-hearted scene, some working and a few don’t. For example, a operating joke involving a junior advocate (Basil Joseph) and his outdated good friend (Vineeth Sreenivasan), who’s now a decide, appears a bit pressured. Regardless of all of the youthful forged of actors round them, Vijayaraghavan and KPAC Leela hog all of the limelight with their transferring performances because the couple who’re dealing with a disaster late of their lives. Within the moments that he acts stern, Vijayaraghavan brings again reminiscences of his father N.N.Pillai’s iconic character ‘Anjooran’ in Godfather.

Pookkaalam is a feel-good household entertainer with a novel theme that ends moderately tamely and predictably.

Pookkaalam is presently operating in theatres

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