NITA'S TALKIE TALK: Pazhassi Raja

Rating: 3/5
Language: Malayalam (Dubbed into Hindi, Tamil, Telugu)
Gener: Historical
Gist: Story of the 18th century popular king, Kerala Varma Pazhassi and his revolt against the British East India Company with the help of his trusted right-hand Edachena Kungan Nair and Kurichiar Tribe.

Director: T. Hariharan
Story: MT Vasudevan
Music: Illayaraja
Produced by: Gokulam Gopalan

Cast: Mammooty, Sharathkumar, Manoj K Jayan, Padmapriya, Kanika Sbramanium, Peter Handley, Harry Key, Linda Arsenio

REVIEW
Highlights:

1. MT Vasudevan's story
2. Good acting by Indian actors. Apart from Mamooty, performaces by Sharathkumar, Padmapriya and Manoj K Jayan were exceptional. Sharathkumar's mouth movements were very good.
3. Well-done publicity. Successful at creating a hype.
4. Locations
5. Informative for those who know nothing about this piece of history.

Drawbacks:

1. Some of the costumes look very synthetic. The British actors' costumes were very bright.
2. The malayalam spoken sounds more 'new age' than it ought to be.
3. Wigs were terrible. It looks more like hair that hasnt been washed in ages!
4. Action - the excessive use of the hung-from-rope action kills the intended effect and it has been executed badly in several places. Sharathkumar out-shines Mamooty in the sword fights- his movements have a better finish. Padmapriya has handled her action scenes very well.
5. Non-Indian actors: Peter Handley plays Major James Gordon. Harry Key plays Assistant Collector Thomas Hervey Baber. Linda Arsenio plays Dora Assistant Collector Baber's fiancée. To sum up their acting abilities - pathetic, below average, too theatrical in some cases. Infact, they look almost comical in several scenes. For example, the final scene after the king is dead and the Asst. Collector talks of how he respects the King dispite him being their enemy, made me laugh for two reasons - one, the dialogue delivery was highly juvenile and two, no where else in the movie did Harry Key's face ever show that he felt any kind of respect for his enemy, the king. (Compare it with the Last Samurai's scene where Ken Watanbe gets killed. You can see the honour that the enemies feel for eachother. Now you get me?!)
6. Narrator - It looks like the narrator is only a last minute addition for the sake of adding a crowd-puller's name in the credits of the movie in the beginning so that the movie finds it easy to warm up to the local crowd. The narrator has just 2-3 lines to say in the beginning of the movie and thats it. You dont hear the narrator ever again.
7. Had this been created some 20-30 years ago, this would have been good enough. But at a day and age where you get to see period movies being created more often and that too with such finesse, it is sin to create a movie which is known as the most expensive Malayalam movie (Rs.2,700,000) and that severely lacks detail and perfection.
8. Somehow the movie fails to anchor your attention and interest.

BOTTOM LINE:

Watch it for the history. It will ride on the waves of celebrity-power and hype. The hype will draw-in the initial crowd, but the loyal fans will keep the moolah flowing.