Malikappuram is a Malayalam-language action adventure drama film which is directed by Vishnu Sasi Shankar and starring Unni Mukundan, Baby Deva Nandha, and Master Sreepath in the lead roles. The film is also dubbed into Telugu and is being presented by a popular Telugu production house- Geetha Arts banner. The film also Manoj K Jayan, Saiju Kurup, Alphy Panjikaran, Sampath Ram, and others in supporting roles. The Music is composed by Ranjin Raj. The film is produced by Neeta Pinto & Priya Venur under Kavya Film Company banner.
Story:
An eight-year-old girl named Shannu (Baby Deva Nandha) has a strong wish to visit Sabarimala for a long time but she never gets to go there. After a personal tragedy where her father commits suicide, she finally decides to fulfill her wish to visit Sabarimala with the support of her classmate Bujji (Master Sreepath). Both the 2 kids start their journey without their parent’s knowledge. Will they be able to reach Sabarimala? Where does Ayyappan (Unni Mukundan) come into the picture? Needs to be seen in the film.
What about on-screen performances?
Unni Mukundan is excellent in his role and has a good screen presence in the movie. He plays a delicate character that offers him dual shades and he has pulled it off with ease.
Baby Deva Nandha is cute and does well in all the emotional scenes in the film. She emotes so effortlessly and is quite natural in her role as Shannu.
Master Sreepath shines in his role as Bujji. He gets all the funny scenes in the film and he has done his job in an effective manner.
Saiju Kurup is pretty decent as Shannu’s father.
The rest of the cast are fine in their respective parts.
What about off-screen talents?
The story by Abhilash Pillai is very simple where an eight-year-old girl wants to visit Sabarimala. When you see it from a cinematic perspective, there is nothing that the story is going to offer to the regular movie-going audience and it majorly reminds us of the 2000 Telugu film ‘Devullu’.
The screenplay is very poor. The scenes look disjointed as the flow of scenes happens randomly without a proper way. The only positive about the writing is how they bring in Unni Mukundan’s role into the story and how they join it to the plot towards the climax.
Director Vishnu Sasi Shankar’s presentation is neat but his narrative lacks freshness. The slow pace is another major drawback of the film.
The songs by Ranjin Raj don’t work, especially in the Telugu dubbed version. But his background score is pretty good in a few key scenes & action episodes.
The camera work by Vishnu Narayanan is good. All the action scenes are nicely shot.
What’s Hot?
- Unni Mukundan’s Performance
- Baby Deva Nandha & Master Sreepath’s Performances
- Background Score
- Production Values
- Climax Twist & Message At The End
What’s Not?
- Boring Story
- Ordinary Screenplay
- Slow Paced Narrative
- Reason Behind Travelling To Sabarimala
- Poor Sub Plots
- Songs
Verdict: On the whole Malikappuram is more like an ode to Ayyappa Devotees which might cater only to a limited section of the audience.
Telugubulletin.com Rating: 1.5/5