Malaikottai Valiban is predominantly an action movie set in an old land. This movie is directed by Lijo Jose Pelliserry (LJP), starring Mohanlal as the centre character and music director is Prashant Pillai.
Pre-Release Expectations
Malaikottai Valiban was a much expected movie of 2024, especially because the director was LJP. Although Lijo Jose Pellissery is known for his unconventional method of movie making, Malaikottai Valiban was something which people expected it to be a movie full of unexpected twists and turns like his Churuli.
Malaikottai Valiban: The Movie
Malaikottai Valibhan portrayed Mohanlal as its centre character with many unfamiliar faces. These include Sonali Kulkarni, Katha Nandi, Manoj Moses etc. These actors are new faces to the Malayalam audience. However, Hareesh Peradi, who plays the role of master of Mohanlal is indeed a well known Malayalam actor.
The movie begins with a shot of desert, where a person is working with his mules. The house, the equipment and clothing of this person immediately tells us that the movie is not set in olden times.
Mohanlal portrays Malaikottai Valiban and Malayan. The story begins with Mohanlal's entry to a new place and to establish his power he has defeated one powerful warrior in that place. Accordingly, the winner will get the land, house and woman of the defeated and the defeated shall remain the winner's slave. This is the norm.
Malaikottai Valiban travels around and fight with people. He is a great fighter. He is accompanied by his master and master's son. The master has considered Valiban has his own son and has raised him. Valiban would then try to defeat a warrior, where the opponent of Valiban would be supported by some rich-arrogant person. The story turn from there and by winning the fight, Valiban would fetch a nemesis.
Later, the movie would unfold different stories about the past of Valiban and the mystery about his birth.
There are two women who are significant to this story. The story has has mush turns around the presence of these two women. One of them is the wife of the Valiban's master's son and other would be a woman who loves Valiban.
The personal life of Valiban is sad and he has left with no clue that he has been manipulated to live this life. Valiban has been fed to his mind that his life is made up on the kindness of his master, where his master ultimately turns out to be his enemy. Unaware of his master's trap, Valiban ends up challenging his own father.
The movie has another side to it, where it shows the brutality of the colonisers in India. However, it has another side to this side, where it uses the old movie tricks to show music and fights. For example, the old BGM in slow motion fights, which are rarely seen nowadays.
Action and Direction.
The direction is non-conventional, thus not many people would like it. Although it seems like a medium paced movie, it lags around at times.
This movie would be ideal for someone who is super imaginative of novels, because many of the things in novels are unrealisitic.
All the actors have acted perfectly, especially Hareesh Peradi and Danish Sait. The casting is refreshing and the color palette in the movie gives a different vibe.
There are a lot of action sequences in this movie. Different action tricks are utilized. Fights with swords, hand, guns, artillery etc. are shown.
It has songs, dances and performances as well. Overall, it is technically the whole package.
My Opinion.
This is actually a must watch movie. I used to think why LJP's movies were hyped so much and personally I was not a fan of Jallikattu. I used to feel the pressure to make myself like movies which was so unconventional, and now it has made my mind broader. Sometimes watching unconventional movies and trying to look from a different point of view can actually provide you a new dimension. So not just for the sake of watching a movie, if you are a narrow minded person you should definitely watch it. You might hate it, but trust me some things which are unconventional need to be seen with a different lens.
The movie has a theatrical release and now is available on Disney + Hotstar.
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