Ponthan Mada (1994)

I tried really hard to like Ponthan Mada- this was one of the two movies for which Mammootty won a National Award in 1994 (the other being Vidheyan), and the premise seemed promising. But it just didn't work for me, mostly because of its pace. It's probbaly a me thing, but I just couldn't understand why the film moved so slowly that I had to concentrate really hard on keeping track of what was happening. 

Apart from this, I failed to decipher the motivations of any character. I wanted a more thorough exploration of Ponthan Mada's (Mammukka) psyche, but all I got was... I don't even know. Don't get me wrong, Mammukka's acting was on point even here- the way he transforms effortlessly into all his characters is always a sheer delight to witness and appreciate. You would never imagine that the same actor played a tyrannical landlord in Vidheyan, when he is so convincing as a so-called lower-caste man who is always ready to please his "master" here. Naseeruddin Shah (in his only Malayalam film yet) is alright as Sheema Thampooran, but I didn't find the character interesting at all, apart from the initial interest over the IRA association. The other characters too were just there- I am struggling again to write about them, because I was not attached or invested in their journeys or their selves in any manner whatsoever. 

In conclusion, I dozed off twice during the one hour and forty minutes run-time, that's how much I struggled. 

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