Anthiponvettam Malayalam Movie

Feb 26, 2008 By Thomas T

Anthiponvettam is a film that has a few plus points and a lot of minuses as well. It has as its central characters Jeevan and Nithin, who work together in Bangalore. They are good friends, but differ on just one point. Jeevan likes a girl named Sukanya, a colleague of theirs, but Sukanya and Nithin don't get along with each other.

Once Nithin brings Jeevan home to his village in Kerala, much against the wishes of Sukanya, and to some extent against wishes of Jeevan himself. But Jeevan begins to like the village and the calm and serene life there. The story however, takes a twist with the real-estate mafia coming in and buying up lands in the village. They even eye Nithin's ancestral home and it is here that things take a new turn for the youngsters. As the plot develops, we meet other characters like Kurup Master and Vanitha, who lead protests against the real-estate people.

Performance-wise Arun of For the People fame is just passable as Jeevan, while Saiju Kurup cuts a poor figure as Nithin. Nedumudi Venu as Kurup Master, Jagathy Sreekumar as Kelu Ji and Jagadeesh as V.N. Sen Guvera (a take off on Che Guevara) have done their respective roles remarkably well. Ramya Nambeeshan as Vanitha too is good. It is purely on account of the good performances of these actors and also because of the choice of subject that the film could be accorded at least a nod of appreciation, if not an applause.

The sad part however, is the fact that the subject, which could have been dealt with in a far more sensitive manner, meanders off the track, courtesy poor and inept scripting and poor choice of lead actors. Had it been scripted by a better writer, with more emphasis laid on characterization and better plot-development, and had it been directed by someone who paid more attention to casting, the film would have turned out to be better in many ways.

There's nothing much to be said about the technical aspects. The songs have been shot against exquisite locations, but the songs themselves and their visualization do not in any way deserve mention. In short, Anthiponvettam is a film that you would do well avoiding, unless you are the type that has to see every film that gets released. If you fall into this category you might as well go ahead and see the movie, enjoy its plus points and forget the minuses (which unfortunately are more) and go home, wondering whether you spent your money wisely or not.