Thattumpurath Achuthan’ looks way out of place and period as the planet gets all ready to spin its way into 2019, and leaves you unfulfilled and peculiarly droopy.
It’s a might fall for Lal Jose from the attic this Christmas, and his latest offing ‘Thattumpurath Achuthan’ ironically places him along with his protagonist in a loft from where the world that has long moved on to new-fangled tricks and tropes still seems stuck in a furrow along the timeline. Bereft of charms, here is a film that could have done better, had it graced the screens a good twenty years back.
It’s been a couple of decades since Lal Jose hit the film scene with his ‘Oru Maravathoor Kanavu’, and the charming film maker had followed up his remarkable debut with an array of films, several of which had gone on to become critical and commercial successes. With ‘Thattumpurath Achuthan’ though, he strikes an all time low and shakes us up with a shockingly dull film.
Life hasn’t been too kind to Achuthan (Kunchacko Boban) who finds himself without a job in the most unfortunate and unfavourable of circumstances. Life also has in store for him the mother of all digressions when he comes to know of a damsel in distress and sets out be her saviour amidst a heap of troubles that he himself has been wading through.
It is impossible not to think of ‘Nandanam’ or ‘Pranchiyettan and the Saint’ or one of those other films where the divine presence is dwelled on; where the lord himself descends from the heavens above to take a closer look at the battles that his devotees have been waging down on earth. Achuthan is a staunch Krishna devotee, and it isn’t long before the God himself intervenes and sees to it that things are set right.
However, what isn’t actually right around here, is Sindhuraj’s worn out script that lacks the finesse and contemporariness that the year demands. Thattumpurath Achuthan’ looks way out of place and period as the planet gets all ready to spin its way into 2019, and leaves you unfulfilled and peculiarly droopy.
It’s really disheartening to see Kunchacko Boban while away his time and potential in roles as these, and ‘Thattumpurath Achuthan’ would remain a hollow addition to his filmography. Debutante Sravana makes a confident debut, and a whole lot of actors as Nedumudi Venu, Hareesh Kanaran, Bindu Panicker, Vijayaraghavan and Kalabhavan Shajon lend support. There is also the gifted Adhish Praveen making a noteworthy appearance.
Looks like it’s almost a musical that Lal Jose and Sindhuraj must have had in their minds, and the songs flow by in quick succession, and after a while Deepankuran’s musical score is lost in a torrent of immaterial sequences. Roby Varghese Raj however captures the film in all earnestness and his stellar frames ensure that ‘Thattumpurath Achuthan’ is quite easy on the eyes.
At almost one hundred and forty two minutes, ‘Thattumpurath Achuthan’ is by no means a deftly edited film. It safely opts for an age-old tale and an older story telling technique, and is a tonally uneven, stretched out film that would have fans of the director hoping that he would keep his hands off such disposable tales in the years to come.
Verdict: Average