Paka Malayalam Movie

Feature Film | 2022
Critics:
Audience:
Lukose gives more importance to the revenge aspect than the love story in Paka, making the film more violent and intense. This also means that the audience thinks more about who will survive or escape as compared to whether the couple will be united at the end.
Jul 9, 2022 By Sreejith Mullappilly

Where To Watch:
Streaming:
   Sony LIV

Old people offer words of wisdom to the younger members of their family in movies unless they are part of a gangster family. In director Nithin Lukose's Paka, however, a grandfather and a grandmother in seemingly normal families offer words of being vice. It instigates violence as the younger members of their families regard those immoral tips as words of wisdom.


Paka is a story of revenge between two families that spans multiple generations. It seems like a straightforward revenge saga but has stunning pieces of storytelling and brilliant acting.


Basil Paulose plays Johnny and Vinitha Koshy plays Anna, the members of the feuding families who are in love. It is a bit of a Romeo and Juliet situation as the couple wants to get married in secret but could not do so because of the feud between their families.


Lukose gives more importance to the revenge aspect than the love story in Paka, which makes the film more violent and intense. This also means that the audience thinks more about who will survive or who will escape as compared to whether the couple will be united at the end.


There are clever meanings to the revenge aspect of the movie, some of which are explained with lines while others are conveyed with visuals. For instance, when the grandfather in one of the families gives hit-job orders, the director shows that person fully. On the other hand, the director does not show the face of the grandmother in the other family as she instigates violence. In one equally funny and scary scene, the old woman tells her grandchild to sharpen the weapon of her old man and be ready for the ultimate kill job. In another scary and hilarious scene, the older man in the other family tells his younger members that the body of one of their relatives might be in the river during his inexplicable absence.


Paka implies that men play a more direct role in these kinds of family disputes, whereas women contribute indirectly to them by pulling the strings from the background. This point is emphasized with a piece of narrative explaining why and how the feud started between the families.


What makes Paka more of a tense and thrilling watch is the acting. Basil Paulose's face often shows the quiet, simmering anger in Johnny's mind. This is a breakout role for Basil. The other notable performance in the film comes from Nithin George, who plays the elder brother in one of the families with a quiet sense of menace. There is no bad performance in the movie. Lukose even borrows a bit or two from films like Pariyerum Perumal, such as images of old men in the vicinity of corpses.


Srikanth Kabothu's cinematography and Faizal Ahamed's background bring a feeling of claustrophobia and a sense of urgency to the proceedings as the pacing dips a bit in some places. Despite the brilliant performances, Paka is ultimately a triumphant piece of storytelling. If you put Thazhvaram, Joji, and Kadaseela Biriyani in a washing machine, this is the kind of film you might get.

Sreejith Mullappilly

   

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