The typical Kerala monsoon soaks the sleepy town of Ranni. In the quiet following the media blizzard at Ranni police station, the CCTV cameras are surreptitiously switched off. A large group of plainclothes officers arrive at the basement of the police station, with the intent to silence Benz aka Shanmugam (Mohanlal). However, the grand plan backfires. As soon as an injured and subdued Benz sits up and counters the assault of the officers, the movie hall bursts with applause and hooting. By the time he is up and putting on his mundu in his characteristic style, people are practically jumping on their seats, crazed and giddy with the extreme close-ups of Mohanlal라이브 바카라 blazing eyes.
Thudarum is clearly a winner for Mohanlal fans. His 360th film overall, Thudarum—which literally translates as “To be continued” in English—is being touted as a “real comeback” by several critics across the industry. And rightfully so. The film, which director Tharun Moorthy has clarified is a “family drama” and not a “crime thriller”, has managed to paint Mohanlal in all shades—from the town라이브 바카라 loving clown, to doting father, obedient husband and of course, the merciless hunter. It clearly comes across as an ode from a die-hard fan of cinema in general, and a Mohanlal fan in particular. The undying love that Benz harbours for his rickety black ambassador drives the narrative at multiple levels. Not only does it turn into a clever narrative tool, but it also serves as a metaphor for Mohanlal라이브 바카라 stardom itself. Through it, Moorthy speaks of the Malayalam superstar라이브 바카라 charm of the past, in an era where the star system is experiencing tectonic shifts.
However, where the film falters is in its treatment of women. Painfully little screen time is offered to Shobana, or any of the other women characters in the story, who are used instead to satiate twisted fantasies, often cooked up in such revenge plots to rile up the ‘main’ hero. The scenes where they are subjected to police brutality appear as unnecessary titillation, which does nothing to embellish the story except prolong the running time. The narrative ends up reducing them to run-of-the-mill ‘damsels in distress’, who need to be saved by their man.
While the flaws do stand out, it is still interesting to see a certain spin on gender dynamics, which underlines this revenge thriller's second half as a larger social message about honour killings. Moorthy has made a witty attempt to imbricate the recent tragic landslides of Kerala into the story as a significant plot point. Shaji Kumar라이브 바카라 camerawork further adds to the lasting impact of the film, shifting smoothly between striking bird라이브 바카라 eye views of the landscape and piercing close-ups that have a visceral impact on the audience. Beautiful nature shots constitute the visual geography of the film, providing poetic metaphors to the narrative. The soundtrack designed by Jakes Bejoy complements the intensity of the film라이브 바카라 subject, rendering the thrill in the theatrics of the film.
Overall, Thudarum라이브 바카라 craft stands tall and mighty in delivering a power-packed return of Mohanlal to the silver screen with a vengeance—literally, and figuratively.
