The hype around two superstar movies with similar plots suddenly fell flat with ‘Parunthu’, ending up as one that seldom keeps us engaging. Largely inspired from the likes of ‘Devaasuram’, in drawing the negative caricatures of protagonists, the movie just places another central character, this time a cruel money lender, in the already set frame of transition and turning a new leaf in the life of the lead baddie.
‘Parunthu’ has Mammootty as ‘Parunthu’ Purushothaman, a blade mafia chief having a particular penchant for hot cash, operating in Kozhikode city. He is like the ravenous hawk who pounce upon his preys, who are in demand of money and tearing them apart with his sharp eye with little care for any human emotions. He don’t believe in any form of relationships as his mother had abandoned him at a young age, leaving him to grow up as the right arm of a money lender, Kunjikka.
Purushu’s curious forms of entertainments includes watching football matches on television, and practicing yoga and exercises other than eating ‘Nadan’ Chicken fry and creating havoc’s in families, trying to milk in his capital and its crude interests.
Puroshothaman’s few associates includes Vinayan (Jayasurya), another youth trapped in a planned ‘Hawala’ case, Kunjachan (Cochin Haneefa) a defaulter who now turns out as his cook and Poojapura Mahendran (Sooraj Venjaranmoodu), a small time land broker. Purushu’s only soft corner is with Seetha (Lakshana), whose property he has taken over after the elopement of her husband, who defaulted Purushu’s loan. The only opponent of ‘Parunthu’ is Kallayi Aziz, another cunning blade mafia don, who runs the Calicut chits and real estates.
The movie opens with a mass suicide of a family due to Purushu’s harsh dealings. But Purushu never gets moved by these incidents, which he considers as a regular outcome of his business. He goes on to thrash other families who are already in his debit list and to drive them out of their properties, by using his thugs. The latest in his list is Hemanthbhai, a business tycoon who is in the verge of big loss due to pending court cases. Purushu halts the wedding of Rakhi, Bhai’s daughter. And this leads to Bhai losing his mind and gradually succumbing to death.
The later half of the movie presents the expected but unavoidable change of the cruel hero into a hearty person, following a number of reasons of which, very few are convincing. In between all these incidents, Kallayi Aziz creates some situations that demands fights and intense dialogues. ‘Parunthu’, as usual, drags into its much predictable and sentimental climax, leaving the viewers much in despair.
T A Rasaq is easily the topper in the list of the best of the dialogue writers, available in Mollywood. But that does not qualify him as a good scriptwriter, though the veteran had an experience in the field of around two decades. ‘Parunthu’ is one best example of this never gripping screenplay writing. The pit holes of the narratives, show more than itself in ‘Parunthu’, which even after with this inviting premise fails to take off to better arenas of film realization. Rasaq miserably fails to make the transition of the protagonist smooth enough to suit the demand of commercial format. Like the catchword in the scripts that he talks through the character ‘Nammal randum villanmara, Villain jayikkunna charithrame illa” and ends up taking the old fashioned ways for transformation of the villain into a savior.
Then comes the choreographer Rekha, who has done the most harm to the movie by the two songs that she has done for the movie. The first one, the Kavady song, is embarrassing and awful to watch, disturbing the mood and seriousness of the movie to the levels of amateurism. The repercussions on the viewers, who started booing this song from the shot one, subsided only after ten minutes from the song. The second song in the movie, the Gujarati stuff, also seldom invites much interest with poor shot selections, all through it
And we suspect the director M Padmakumar who has shown much promise with his first three ventures, did his very little share, to rise over an ever faltering script lines. This movie never matches the quality and ingeniousness of his previous ventures. In the acting front, Mammootty in an out and out negative role holds the movie from ending up as bits and pieces. The highpoint of the film is his attempt to break the mould of the super hero to present himself in black and grey , at the same time resisting any attempt to demeanor ‘Maadambi’ – the other movie with same plot ,running in theatres, thus avoiding a star warfare. Jay Kumar, a TV serial actor, as Kallayi Azeez is a revelation and show promise of being in the industry for some more time.
The songs by Alex Paul are nothing exceptional while Ouseppacahan in rerecording has tried his best to make the movie, more engaging. Sanjeev Shankar behind the camera and Ranjan Abraham in editing just go through their routine jobs cycles.
All in all, ‘Parunthu’, provides a few good moments, but offers little else to distinguish itself from other slashed films, made with similar plots. Like any other humble birds, it is destined to fly low.
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