Filmmaker Dijo Jose Antony demonstrated in "Jana Gana Mana" his ability to successfully keep some surprises hidden until the midway point, before the interval card appears. In that film starring Prithviraj Sukumaran and Suraj Venjaramoodu, we realised that after a point, everything we had been led to believe was a "lie" and that what we saw later turned our assumption on its head. (To me, it remains Dijo's best film.) My point is, "Pallichattambi" follows a similar approach, making us believe that things are going to go in a certain direction — and this happens twice, one of which involves a romantic liaison — but then goes in a different direction.
However, it doesn't quite work as it did in "Jana Gana Mana", a film that, despite being largely successful, was called out by some for its "theatricality" — a quality that I found to be one of its key strengths, because I don't believe, even to this day, that it would've worked the way it did had the makers went for a more subtle, restrained approach. However, in the case of "Pallichattambi", I wouldn't say the same. The theatrical approach is the biggest chink in its armour.
Which brings me to its leading man. Look, there are roles that Tovino Thomas can do, and there are roles that he cannot. Briefly in "Pallichattambi" (English: Church Rowdy), the protagonist is required to assume a different character. (Throughout this review, I won't mention his character name because it's among the film's surprises.) I liked the creative choice of incorporating an element of the performance arts to parallel the idea of a man keeping his real identity hidden for the purpose of undertaking a task. We assume he takes on this duty to make ends meet. There is no hint of his ideology, no sense of his background, his motives... One harrowing sequence predictably informs that it's this hero's background — memories of this traumatic event will appear in brief flashes throughout the movie until we get a full picture of what happened in his past.
And just like a sequence where Tovino is essaying Ravana in a play that evokes, to a small extent, what Rishab Shetty did in "Kantara", the film requires its protagonist to fit into a movie that possibly wanted to aim for the epicness of not just "Kantara", but also "KGF", "Salaar" while also evoking the 'massy' mood of a Joshiy/Shaji Kailas movie at the same time. But, in trying to do so, it ends up without an identity of its own. (I can see now why the makers went outside Kerala to promote it.) This is not Tovino's fault, but this type of protagonist is ill-suited for an actor of Tovino's stature.
I'm not saying he isn't capable of larger-than-life characters. But, the only larger-than-life or raw characters — "Minnal Murali", "Kala", "Ajayante Randaam Moshanam" — that worked to his advantage are the ones backed by strong writing and a restrained direction. The other BIG films didn't work for him — "Kalki", "Identity" — because the writing was either very superficial or relied mostly on scale and stunts (repetitive and unremarkable in “Pallichattambi”) or characters constantly telling us that a certain someone is "going to save us" or a certain someone "did many cruel things." Bro, why not just let the character show it through his actions instead of having everyone do different variations of the same line or repeat the same gesture?
With the underwhelming ones like these, there is always the sense that the makers probably had lofty ambitions, but were unable to execute them to the best of their abilities due to various factors. For a film like “Pallichattambi”, which incorporates important events from Kerala's rich political history, I'm not sure if a larger-than-life Telugu masala movie-style was the right direction. Why should Malayalam cinema try to ape what Kannada and Telugu cinema does? Tovino is not Allu Arjun. Tovino is not Yash. He is a good actor, but let’s not try to put him in characters that don’t suit him.
And it's even more disappointing when they bring in one of Malayalam's biggest superstars for an unexpected cameo as a character who is supposed to be the film's BIGGEST baddie (who occasionally looks like a villain from an old Shaw Brothers Shaolin kung fu movie), but fail to take advantage of his presence. I won't reveal who it is — because it was a surprise for me too; kudos to the team for managing to keep it a secret — but given this superstar's voice, aura, charisma and physique, you expect the film to get you excited about this MASSIVE climactic showdown between him and Tovino, but instead makes you feel like someone whose quest for a great orgasm is suddenly interrupted by a loud banging on the door. To quote Soubin Shahir's "Kumbalangi Nights" line, "Mood poyi, mood poyi. (Mood gone, mood gone)."
Film: Pallichattambi
Director: Dijo Jose Antony
Cast: Tovino Thomas, Kayadu Lohar, Vijayaraghavan, Siddique, TG Ravi, Baburaj, Alexander Prasanth
Rating: 2/5
