Kallante Makan Malayalam Movie
'Kallante Makan' looks like a film that has sprouted in the wrong age. Resembling one of those instructional documentaries, the film is as blandly pedantic as it gets.
Anand (Yaduksrishnan), is a young boy who has had to live with the brand of a thief's son, after his dad (Anoop Chandran) is arrested for robbing the temple idol and set to jail. Aided by his teacher (Lekshmipriya), Anand strives hard to make both ends meet, by selling groundnuts at the beach on the evenings. On hearing the news of his dad returning from jail, Anand is disgruntled, much to the grief of his mother (Archana).
There is always the question as to whether a good intention is reason enough for a film to be considered as first rate. Unfortunately it isn't, and 'Kallante Makan' belongs to the category of those films, the rationale of which is righteous, but the execution of which fails the very purpose that it upholds.
The messages that the film rigidly puts across are two. There is the underlying adage that runs throughout the film that the societal outlook towards criminals needs to change. Not just that, it also proves beyond doubt that not everyone who has served a punishment for a crime, needs to have committed the offense.
On another parallel thread, the film tries to explore the issue of ostracization of a child, whose parents had died of HIV. Perhaps building on a real life incident that we had read about not long ago, the film at times, almost seems like a public awareness campaign when it comes to its messages on HIV and its spread.
For instance, it's the teacher who serves as the guardian angel here, and she gets down to the task of spelling out the points in detail, stating that HIV does not spread through touch - the kind of awareness drive that we are all used to. She manages to bring about a massive transformation in the class, and smiles when kids agree to share a bench with the unfortunate girl.
Messages and notes apart, 'Kallante Makan' is a massive letdown, as it fails to explore the potentials that are offered by a medium like cinema. Its disheartening to see that the technical standards are quite minimal, and often do not even maintain the quality of a television sitcom.
In a highly embarrassing cameo, Sreejith Ravi makes an appearance as a dynamite cop, with an iron fist. He smashes through the climax, and sends the baddies flying left and right. The choreography and the actions sequences are both awkward, and one ends up wishing that the editor had chopped through those scenes.
Yadukrishnan does a neat job of playing Anand, while Lekshmipriya and Archana provide ample support in their respective roles. Anoop Chandran goes way overboard at times, and seems quite out of place in the role of the man falsely accused of a crime.
As much as one recognizes the objective of a film like 'Kallante Makan', there can be no justification to the mediocrity on display. This is the exact reason why the film is an indictment of the fact that a noble cause does not always a good film make.
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