Manthrikan Malayalam Movie Review

Producer- Anand Kumar

Director- Anil

Cast- Jayaram, Poonam Bajwa, Muktha George, Ramesh Pisharody, Riyaz Khan etc.

Music- S.Balakrishnan

Background Music- Rajamani

Review By : Unni R Nair

I expected ‘Manthrikan’ to be a decent and watchable entertainer. Anil, of the Anil-Babu duo, had earlier teamed up with Jayaram to give films like ‘Pattabhishekam’, ‘Uthaman’ etc. Though some of their films, especially the last couple of them, were not up to the mark, I somehow expected ‘Manthrikan’ to be a watchable film. But my expectations were quashed and the film turned out to be sort of a mess, with scenes poorly written and poorly executed.

All hell breaks loose at the Shenayi Mandiram in Coorg when an agitated soul turns violent and goes on a killing spree. A sorcerer Manapalli Bhattathiri (Jayakrishnan) is brought in; he performs the mantras, captivates the spirit that appears in the form of a yakshi and traps the soul in a vessel, which is then buried underground. Peace is thus restored.

Years later, we come across Mukundan Unni (Jayaram), who does farming in a village in Karnataka. He also cheats the three Nettikadan brothers (Jayan, Mahesh and Kottayam Nazeer) and gets money from them, promising to bring them a beautiful girl. He shows them a photograph made by joining together pieces from the photographs of different actresses (Boo!). It’s in the meanwhile that he happens to rescue a girl (Poonam Bajwa) from the clutches of a band of ruffians who are chasing her. This girl has forgotten her past. Mukundan Unni names her Malu; they gradually fall in love. Then, the girl is once again attacked and after being admitted to the hospital, disappears without leaving a trace.

Mukundan Unni has to go back home, where his father passes away. Almost at the same time, the Yakshi in Shenayi Mandiram at Coorg is once again freed and she is back on her killing spree. She is Rugmini alias Rukku (Muktha George), who was brutally burnt to death years back. To tame the Yakshi once again, people from Shenayi Mandiram come seeking Manapalli Bhattathiri, who is no more. It’s now that we realize that Mukundan Unni is Manapalli Bhattathiri’s son, but alas he knows nothing about mantras and the art of taming Yakshis. His two close aides Subrahmanyan (Ramesh Pisharody) and Shekharan Kutty (Kalabhavan Shajon) however convince them that Mukundan Unni would do the job of taming the Yakshi. What happens then forms the rest of the plot.

The half-baked script with scenes that are totally unconvincing and characters handled in the most childish of manners is what makes ‘Manthrikan’ insufferable. You wonder why the Nettikadan brothers are there in the film! You wonder why Subrahmanyan utters so many clichéd dialogues! You wonder why you chose to see this unimpressive Yakshi story which has nothing new or different to offer! You end up wondering why a producer who made a film as beautiful as ‘Beautiful’ ended up making an atrocious flick like this. There’s nothing in ‘Manthrikan’ for anyone, it’s all mixed up and reaching nowhere.

Performance 

Jayaram is his usual self, but seems to be doing the character sans any kind of involvement. Something seems to be amiss in his performance. Poonam Bajwa is just about OK while Muktha is good. Ramesh Pisharody is real unimpressive and his expressions give us the feel of a school boy uttering lines that have been learnt by heart.

Technical aspects

Nothing much to say, except that the graphic work has been done convincingly well.

Music

Songs are all average ones and the background score OK. S.Balakrishnan, who had delivered those beautiful songs in the early hits by Siddique-Lal, fails to make an impression this time with his tunes.

Script

It’s the faulty script that accounts for the messy state that the film is in. The writers should have done the script with utmost care, especially since he has got nothing new to tell here. The film ends up being neither a comedy nor a horror flick.

Direction

Nothing much to say. Seems like Anil has lost his touch; he used to churn out decent entertainers earlier.

Verdict- Poor show!!

Rating: 1/5