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‘Thankam’ movie review: A layered character study and engaging procedural rolled in one

Director saheed arafath and scriptwriter syam pushkaran masterfully handle the journey of the narrative, led by fine performances from vineeth sreenivasan, biju menon and others in the cast.

Updated - January 27, 2023 02:41 pm IST

Published - January 27, 2023 01:03 pm IST

A still from ‘Thankam’

One can portray a group involved in a particular trade or even a community from an outsider’s perspective, or look at them as someone from within would do. In Thankam , steeped in the world of the small-time agents, workshop men and deliverers in the gold industry of Thrissur, director Saheed Arafath and scrip writer Syam Pushkaran, choose to do the latter. The song sequence during the opening credits — a montage of every activity in this industry much of which operates just under the radar — sets the tone for what is in store.

It is a beautifully-crafted sequence which depicts the precise work, the risks involved, the expanse of the business and the camaraderie between the principal players. When Kannan (Vineeth Sreenivasan), who delivers the finished gold to jewellers in various states, carefully ties a whole roll of paper filled with gold bangles around his waist — as a precautionary measure before his delivery run — one gets an inkling of the perilous paths that he has to tread. It is this path filled with possibilities of deceit and backstabbing that Thankam is concerned with.

Muthu (Biju Menon)‘s gold business is dependent on Kannan’s easy charm, with which he has built up a wide network of contacts. The script is built around two incidents that happen during his gold run. The second incident, of Kannan going missing in Mumbai with a considerable quantity of gold, drives the film. But we keep coming back to the seemingly minor first event, of Kannan, Muthu and their friend (Vineeth Thattil) landing in the police net during a trip to Coimbatore. Aspects of their character, hitherto unknown, gets revealed as we go along, but a key aspect of one of the characters is kept for the last.

But even with the little that we know of them, we remain invested in their lives, almost as much as they are in the gold, thanks to how they are written. The women (especially Kannan’s wife played by Aparna Balamurali) though get under-written roles, with only gold dealer Ambika (Indira Prasad) getting a strong part. Actor Kochupreman, who passed away recently, gets one of the most memorable lines in the movie.

The film takes off as a police procedural with the arrival of a Mumbai police team led by an able officer (Girish Kulkarni in a brilliantly-essayed role). The investigation, while focusing on the whodunnit, is also about letting us into the intricacies of the trade and new facets of the characters. Humour keeps popping up even amid the grimness of questioning and tailing the suspects, with the narrative hardly ever losing its hold on us.

This almost-stranglehold and the expectations built up through an investigation across geographies can have its negatives, as the big reveal in the end can be less satisfying, depending on which way you look at it. Looking at it purely as an investigative thriller, what we get in the end can be a downer, but as a character study of someone who shows only the best parts of his life to those close to him, it is a winner. But the journey till that point is handled masterfully, whichever way you look at it.

Thankam is currently running in theatres

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'Thankam’: This Biju Menon, Vineeth Sreenivasan-starrer is every bit gold | Movie Review

As expected ‘Thankam’, directed by Saheed Arafath, is a 24-carat murder mystery that burns like incense - slowly and steadily engulfing you in its smoke. I am a bit confused about calling ‘Thankam’ a murder mystery and you would only understand the reason for my dilemma when you catch the movie in the theatres.

The finesse with which Syam Pushkaran, who has produced the movie along with Fahadh Faasil and Dileesh Pothan, has handled Saheed’s story underlines the fact that he is one of the finest scriptwriters of this generation. ‘Thankam’ opens deceivingly calm, introducing us to the life and work of Muthu (Biju Menon) and Kannan (Vineeth Sreenivasan) giving us no hint about what's in store.

Muthu is a gold agent from Thrissur and Kannan is his 'rider', who distributes the ornaments to jewellery partners across India. With gold in business, one can’t blame if someone expects the story to take the hitherto known path of foul play between the partners. Here also one partner (Kannan) breaks the trust of the other (Muthu), but on a personal level. Syam’s script draws the world of Muthu and Kannan for us without missing even the minutest details making one doubt if he tore those pages from someone’s diary. And those pages were evidently safe in the hands of Saheed and Prinish Prabhakaran(co-director), who made their Mollywood entry together with the 2017 movie ‘Theeram’.

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All the actors, from the top cast to the supporting ones, have done a brilliant job in front of the camera handled by Gautham Sankar, who also cranked the camera for ‘Theeram’. With its life-like frames and tones, ‘Thankam’ is one of Gautham’s best works so far.

The editing by Kiran Das at times felt out of sync with the narration - could be a conscious call to create a false perception about the pace. But one place it felt extremely jarring was when he cut to a high-angle wide while Biju was consoling Aparna Balamurali who comes to know about the death of her husband Vineeth through an unexpected phone call that the former picks up on the car's handsfree. With the camera inside the car, it was a moment owned by the artists in Biju and Aparna.

Biju and Aparna exchange looks and, then taking his time, Biju touches Aparna’s hands that are holding onto his car doors like she is taking all the strength to stay standing after hearing the news. He withdraws first and with a bit of hesitation and brotherly affection, he grips her hands tight. But without allowing the camera to linger there, to let viewers soak in a bit more of that intense moment, we are cut off and given an exterior shot which shows the Vineeth-Aparna couple’s baby girl running towards her mom.

Once we enter the real story, the investigation, all these technical elements take a backseat and it's simply the narration that leads the way. Like a crafty goldsmith, Bijibal has blended his music into the narration so well that it guides its way through the nooks and corners of the story only making its presence felt when needed. The same goes for Kochu Preman as Vineeth’s father. He is like a minimal art that speaks volumes; volumes about what the Malayalam film industry lost with his demise last December. Special mention to Vineeth Thattil David, he was a treat to watch as Muthu's friend.

With a stellar performance by the cast, spellbinding script and mature direction, ‘Thankam’ is a sure theatre-watch.

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Thankam Movie Review & Rating: മാറ്റൊത്ത തിരക്കഥ, ഭദ്രമായ സംവിധാനം; 'തങ്കം' റിവ്യൂ

Thankam movie review & rating: അടരുകളുള്ള കഥാഗതിയിലേക്ക് പ്രേക്ഷകരെ സ്വാഭാവികമായി എത്തിക്കുകയെന്ന ജോലിയാണ് സിനിമയുടെ തിരക്കഥാകൃത്തും സംവിധായകനും ചെയ്തത്..

Thankam Movie Review & Rating: സ്വാഭാവികമായ രീതിയിലുള്ള തുടക്കം, റിയലിസ്റ്റിക്കായ സംഭാഷണങ്ങൾ, റോഡ് മൂവിയിലേക്കുള്ള കൂടുമാറ്റം അവിടെ നിന്നും ഇൻവെസ്റ്റിഗേഷൻ ത്രില്ലറിലേക്കുള്ള മാറ്റം... സൂചനകളൊന്നുമില്ലാത്തിരുന്നിട്ടും 'തങ്കം', ഒരു ടിപ്പിക്കൽ ശ്യാം പുഷ്കരൻ സിനിമയാണ്. അതി ദുരൂഹമായ വഴികളിലൂടെ വളരെ സ്വഭാവികമെന്നവണ്ണം സഞ്ചരിച്ച് അവസാനം മനുഷ്യ മനസാണ് ഏറ്റവും വലിയ ദുരൂഹത എന്ന നിഗമനത്തിലെത്തുന്നു ചിത്രം. വിചിത്രമായ പല അടരുകളുള്ള 'തങ്കം' പലപ്പോഴും അതിനൊപ്പം പ്രേക്ഷകരെ യാത്ര ചെയ്യാൻ പ്രേരിപ്പിക്കുന്നുണ്ട്. സഫീദ് ആരാഫാത്തിന്റെ സംവിധായകനെന്ന രീതിയിലുള്ള കയ്യൊതുക്കം കൂടി എടുത്ത് പറയേണ്ടതാണ്.

'തങ്കം' പേര് സൂചിപ്പിക്കും പോലെ തന്നെ സ്വർണത്താൽ നയിക്കപ്പെടുന്ന കഥയാണ്. കണ്ണൻ, മുത്തു എന്നീ സുഹൃത്തുക്കളുടെ ആത്മബന്ധമാണ് സിനിമയെ മുന്നോട്ട് കൊണ്ടു പോകുന്നത്. തൃശ്ശൂരിലെ ചെറുകിട സ്വർണ ഏജന്റുമാരായ ഇവർ വളരെ അപകടകരമായ രീതിയിൽ താഴെക്കിടയിൽ നിന്നു പ്രവർത്തിച്ചു ജീവിതത്തെ സുരക്ഷിതമാക്കാൻ ശ്രമിക്കുന്നവരാണ്. ഇവരുടെ ജീവിതം തന്നെ മാറ്റി മറിച്ച ഒരു യാത്രയിലേക്കും പിന്നീട് കുറ്റാന്വേഷണത്തിലേക്കും സിനിമ സഞ്ചരിക്കുന്നു. വളരെയധികം അടരുകളുള്ള കഥാഗതിയിലേക്ക് പ്രേക്ഷകരെ സ്വാഭാവികമായി എത്തിക്കുകയെന്ന ജോലിയാണ് സിനിമയുടെ തിരക്കഥാകൃത്തും സംവിധായകനും ചെയ്തത്.

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തൃശ്ശൂരും കോയമ്പത്തൂരും ഉൾപ്പെടെ ചില തമിഴ് നാട് പ്രദേശങ്ങളും മുംബൈ നഗരവുമാണ് സിനിമയുടെ പ്രധാന കഥാപരിസരങ്ങൾ. സിനിമയുടെ മുന്നോട്ടുള്ള പോക്കിന് ഈ ലാൻഡ് സ്‌കെയ്പ്പിംഗ് വളരെ പ്രധാനപ്പെട്ട ഒന്നായിരുന്നു. ഒരിടം അല്ലെങ്കിൽ ഭൂമിക സിനിമയിൽ എങ്ങനെയൊക്കെ പ്രയോജനപ്പെടുത്താമെന്നതിന്റെ ഉത്തരം 'തങ്കം' ഭംഗിയായി നൽകുന്നു. വളരെ കൃത്യമായി ഓരോ ഇടവും കഥ പറയുന്ന രീതിയും കാണാം.

നേരത്തെ സൂചിപ്പിച്ച പോലെ വളരെയധികം അടരുകളുള്ള സിനിമയാണ് 'തങ്കം.' മനുഷ്യൻ ജീവിതത്തിൽ പലയിടത്തും പലതാകുന്നതിന്റെ ഒക്കെ കാഴ്ചകൾ സിനിമ പറയുന്നു. ഇത്തരം അവസ്ഥകൾ അഭിനയത്തിലൂടെ, പെരുമാറ്റത്തിലൂടെ, ശരീര ഭാഷയിലൂടെയൊക്കെ പ്രേക്ഷകരിലെത്തിക്കുക വളരെ ശ്രമകരമാണ്. ബിജു മേനോനും വിനീത് ശ്രീനിവാസനും ഭംഗിയായി ആ ജോലി ചെയ്തിട്ടുണ്ട്. ഗിരീഷ് കുൽക്കർണിയും സിനിമയുടെ വ്യത്യസ്തമായ അന്തരീക്ഷം പ്രേക്ഷകരിലെത്തിക്കുന്നതിൽ വലിയ പങ്കു വഹിച്ചിട്ടുണ്ട്. വിനീത് തട്ടിൽ ഡേവിഡ്, അപർണ ബാലമുരളി എന്നിവരും തങ്ങളുടെ ചെറുതും വലുതുമായ രംഗങ്ങളിൽ വളരെ സ്വാഭാവികമായി തന്നെ സ്‌ക്രീനിൽ വന്നു പോയി. കഥാപാത്രങ്ങളുടെ ഒട്ടും തുറസല്ലാത്ത മാനസികാവസ്ഥകൾ പ്രേക്ഷകരിലെത്തിച്ചത് ഇവരുടെ സാന്നിധ്യമാണ്. തിരക്കഥ ഉദ്ദേശിക്കുന്ന ആശയവിനിമയം ഒട്ടും കൂടുകയും കുറയുകയും ചെയ്യാതെ ഇവർ കാഴ്ചക്കാരിലേക്കെത്തിച്ചു.

സിനിമയിലെ കുറ്റാന്വേഷണ രംഗങ്ങൾ പ്രേക്ഷകരിൽ എത്തുന്നത് വളരെ മൃദുവായാണ്. പതിഞ്ഞ താളത്തിലാണ് മൂന്നോ നാലോ ദിവസങ്ങൾ ഒരു വലിയ കേസിനു പുറകെ സഞ്ചരിക്കുന്നവർ പ്രേക്ഷകർക്ക് മുന്നിൽ ജീവിക്കുന്നത്. ഒരർത്ഥത്തിൽ അതാണ്‌ ഈ സിനിമയുടെ ഭംഗി. വളരെ പോപ്പുലർ ആയ അന്വേഷണ രീതികളെ, കുറ്റകൃത്യങ്ങളെ ഒക്കെ 'തങ്കം' ഉപേക്ഷിക്കുന്നു. ഒരു കുറ്റകൃത്യമുണ്ടാക്കുന്ന ഉദ്വേഗത്തേക്കാൾ കൂടുതൽ അതുണ്ടാക്കുന്ന സംഘർഷങ്ങളും ആകാംക്ഷകളും മുറിവുകളുമാണ് സിനിമയുടെ വിഷയം. അവസാനം അവശേഷിക്കുന്നതതാണെന്ന് സിനിമ പറഞ്ഞു പോകുന്നു.

'തങ്കം' ഈ നിലക്കൊക്കെ പൂർണത അവകാശപ്പെടാവുന്ന സിനിമയാണെങ്കിലും അവസാനത്തോടടുക്കുമ്പോൾ വളരെയധികം ഫ്ലാറ്റ് ആയി പോകുന്നത് പോലെ അനുഭവപ്പെട്ടു. സ്പൂൺ ഫീഡിങ് ചിലയിടങ്ങളിലെങ്കിലും ആവശ്യമുണ്ടായിരുന്ന വളരെയധികം സാങ്കേതികമായ കാര്യങ്ങൾ ഒറ്റയടിക്ക് പറഞ്ഞവസാനിപ്പിച്ചത് പോലെ തോന്നി. സിനിമക്കും കാണുന്നവർക്കുമിടയിൽ ഉണ്ടായിരുന്ന ആശയ വിനിമയത്തെ ഒറ്റയടിക്ക് മുറിച്ചു കളയും പോലുള്ള അനുഭവമാണ് ഇതുണ്ടാക്കിയത്. ആ വൈകാരികതയിലേക്ക് എത്തുന്ന കാരണം ചിലർക്കെങ്കിലും അജ്ഞാതമായിരിക്കുന്ന അനുഭവം 'തങ്കം' ഒടുവിൽ ചിലയിടങ്ങളിൽ നൽകി. 'തൊണ്ടിമുതലും ദൃ‌ക്‌സാക്ഷി'യും (2017) 'ഡിയർ ഫ്രണ്ട്' (2022)പോലുള്ള സിനിമകൾ പറയാൻ ശ്രമിച്ച തരത്തിലുള്ള മനുഷ്യ മനസിന്റെ ആഴത്തെ കുറിച്ചാണ് മറ്റൊരു യോണറിൽ നിന്ന് 'തങ്ക'വും പറയുന്നത്.

മനുഷ്യ മനസിനെ കുറിച്ച് ചിന്തിക്കുന്ന, കുറ്റകൃത്യങ്ങളിലെ സങ്കീർണതകളെ കുറിച്ച് ആശങ്കപ്പെടുന്നവർക്ക് അത്രയൊന്നും വ്യവസ്ഥാപിത കാഴ്ചകൾ ഇല്ലാത്ത 'തങ്കം' നിരാശയില്ലാത്ത അനുഭവം നൽകിയേക്കാം.

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Thankam Review: Now Streaming on Prime Video, The Film Is An Exciting Idea Lost In The Balancing Act Between A Character Study And A Procedural

Directors: Saheed Arafath, Prinish Prabhakaran (co-director)

Writer: Syam Pushkaran

Cast: Biju Menon, Vineeth Sreenivasan, Aparna Balamurali

Syam Pushkaran’s new film (as a writer) is about a man putting up a facade, and the lengths to which he will go, to maintain the same. It’s a lowkey character study and more prominently an investigative crime drama. To sell the bit about the facade, Syam utilizes a personality who comes with a strong amount of goodwill and warmth attached to his presence. Vineeth Sreenivasan ’s Kannan is soft-spoken, pious and visibly confident. But humans aren’t as one-dimensional, and there’s always much to discover beneath a person’s actions. While Mukundan Unni Associates uses the actor’s sincere presence as an ironic contrast to perpetually being inside the head of a messed-up character, Thankam wants to unravel the depths of Kannan gradually, through those who know him. It takes him on a seemingly physical journey before it reveals to us that it was a psychologically dark, almost-spiritual journey for him all along.

The film begins in a rather crude manner with a montage song, set to a devotional track presumably about Laxmi, the Goddess of wealth. It’s a peculiar choice, first of many, to provide no context and begin with a sequence that doesn’t quite have a story in itself. The part-devotional, part-brooding song is surely appropriate for the film and its theme, but the timing and necessity of it aren’t as convincing. More so in retrospect, considering the psychological turn that the ending takes.

Biju Menon is par excellence as Muthu, where he walks the fine line between submitting to authority while also maintaining his natural composure so as to not invite unwanted suspicion. The scene where he and Aparna Balamurali get the news of the death of a loved one is terrific for proving how measured these actors can be with exhibiting hefty emotions. Girish Kulkarni heading the police side of affairs makes for another entertaining act. The whole entourage of policemen don’t display histrionics or eccentricities, and they bring in a very lived-in feeling to the proceedings.

Kannan has darkness in him that seems to be coming from suppressed emotions, and we get fleeting moments of his character that are quite striking. The way he snaps at Muthu for a logistic issue, and immediately gets back to being his warm self, is unsettling to say the least. This is essentially what the writing is trying to do at first, amidst a seemingly plot-heavy narrative – reveal character in drops, as opposed to a single pouring.

But when the pouring happens towards the end, it doesn’t land like the sucker punch that it should have been. The gravity of themes that Kannan was in, is never felt. I wish we could’ve gotten a glimpse of it, through a couple more moments in the beginning itself, especially in place of a montage. The distance between the story’s central character and the viewer is the primary undoing of this film. We needed more time with Kannan. It can be argued that the film is trying to dissect only the idea behind the character’s death and not the character itself, but my truth as a viewer is that I still don’t know Kannan to the degree that would make his death affect me to a substantial extent.

It is fairly evident what point the makers are trying to make – that a man, a literal (gold) rider and provider, will go to great lengths to project a facade even in his own death, rather than admitting that his mental health was in shambles. Even his closest ones would firstly want to keep up that facade rather than admit openly that something went wrong. There are those around him who believe he was always cursed, some who see him as weak to have made this decision, and another who gets all nihilistic about his death. I wish the film spent more time around these conflicting ideologies, instead of stretching out the dailies of the investigation.

Syam has built his screenplay with two investigations. The first is more of an incident compared to the full-blown investigation that follows, but this is where we get familiar with the characters through how they deal with their situation. Even when this ordeal ends, we haven’t gotten to the inciting incident of the bigger story. Once we get there is when the film changes course and becomes an intriguing crime piece. The narrative doesn’t allow any space to think about the shift in genre, as the investigation organically spirals into a series of engaging situations. These portions are amusingly diverse – there’s comedy, there’s a chase, and even an almost mass-y action block. This would also make for a good double-bill with Rajeev Ravi’s Kuttavum Shikshayum (also the superior film), for the trust it places on presenting the nitty-gritties of an investigation.

Malayalam cinema’s control in dramatising the most realistic of narratives, with cinematic finesse, continues to shine through with this film. The more I think about it, this is an easily exciting idea to work on. It’s a structure pushed forward by reliable narrators – because nobody’s really lying – leading up to a reveal about the death of the actual unreliable narrator. But Thankam fails to realise its individual potential by not landing the balancing act between being a character study and a procedural.

'Thankam' review: A gripping thriller on gold smuggling

Malayalam (Amazon Prime Video)

Director: Saheed Arafath

Cast: Biju Menon, Aparna Balamurali, Vineeth Srinivasan and Girish Kulkarni

Rating: 4/5

Thankam , directed by Saheed Arafath, is another example of the Malayalam film industry’s strong hold over realistic cinema. Thankam means gold in Malayalam, and the film depicts the world of gold smuggling. You see men with high calibre forced to commit the crime.

The movie starts with the friendship between Kannan and Muthu who are involved in a gold smuggling business in Thrissur. The journey of Kannan to Mumbai in connection with smuggling ends up with his death, where he is found hanging in a hotel room. The Mumbai police, in their investigation, travel to Thrissur and Coimbatore to crack the case.

Also Read | ‘Puss in Boots: The Last Wish’ revels in fairy-tale style animation

Thankam begins as a friendship story and then transforms into a gripping crime drama. The cinematography keeps the suspenseful mood of the film intact, and the viewer feels something is going to happen at any moment. The background score further raises our curiosity. Witty dialogues and well-written funny scenes balance the film’s serious tone.

Apart from the film’s technical mastery and a strong screenplay by Shyam Pushkaran, the film also has a well-experienced cast. Biju Menon, Vineeth Srinivasan, Aparna Balamurali and Kochu Preman do justice to their roles, but it is Girish Kulkarni as a cop who stands out .

Thankam is also the last film of Kochu Preman who passed away in December 2022.

Though it’s a Malayalam film, the characters speak Tamil, Hindi, Marathi and English. The semantic barriers and the difficulties to probe a crime in different states, and the lack of communication between individuals, strengthens the film’s plot.

The story also tells how debt taken to lead a decent living can cause harm in the long run and lead to a tragedy.

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Thankam review: Vineeth, Biju are a joy to watch in this well-made but middling film

Images, like they were caught on a still camera, stick to your head long after Thankam is over. Click: Vineeth Sreenivasan in a car with that perpetual smile of his, a face that his co-star in the film Biju Menon says no one can say no to. Like most movies written by Syam Pushkaran, characters just walk into the screen and behave like you have always known them, not bothering to introduce themselves by way of dialogue or song. For a change, there is a title song, quite a devotional one, reminding you of the ‘Pavanarachezhuthunnu’ song that Vietnam Colony (a 90s Mohanlal film) begins with. Thankam takes off without noise, unexpectedly seeps into mystery, takes you on a round trip across Indian cities, and leaves you with more questions than emotions. For a team that comprises several great names, it is a neither-here-nor-there sort of movie, a pendulum hanging midway.

With Syam Pushkaran come his usual collaborators – Fahadh Faasil, Dileesh Pothan and co, producing the film, but not making an appearance. Saheed Arafath, the director, chooses an interesting combination of actors to lead the film. Biju Menon is all big-brotherly as Muthu, the senior of the two protagonists, calling his young friend “our boy”. Vineeth, playing Kannan, in turn treats the former more like a partner, calling him by name, not chettan as the custom is.

At the heart of the film is the gold business these two run. [There appears to be a lot of interest in the metal these days, Thankam (another name for gold) coming soon after Alphonse Puthren’s Gold .] The nature of their dealings seems shady, as Kannan comes to Muthu with “requests” and the two go on long rides.

Perhaps because you see him fresh after the conniving character he played in Mukundan Unni , Vineeth’s warm smiles and devoutness somehow look suspicious. The devotion is very much a part of the script; Kannan’s character is painted over and over with it lest you forget – he visits temples, prays elaborately at home, and bows before every temple he passes. Muthu is shown as quite the jovial guy, taking everything lightly, telling Kannan repeatedly, “don’t be so serious.” These two are marvellous, with Biju Menon in his element, and Vineeth revealing more of his acting range with every passing film.

Watch: Trailer of the film

The script in the earlier portion is hurried. The families are quickly introduced – Aparna Balamurali and a little girl forming Kannan’s, without much to say; and similar counterparts for Muthu, saying even less. A ‘ chechi ’ they do business with – reminding you, in looks, of the late KPAC Lalitha – has more to say, and new actor Indira Prasad does it well.

Muthu and Kannan go for a business deal to Coimbatore and take along another man (Vineeth Thattil David), apparently associated with the business (still no introductions). Things go awfully wrong from here on, and every time you think “this is it, I have got it”, the script takes off to another direction. An unexpected twist that comes before the film’s halfway mark is handed to you like a casual bit of news. Even the background music that accompanies the twist comes late.

You can tell yourself this is that kind of movie, you are not going to get drama, no big noise. Director Saheed must have wanted everything lessened, the emotion on the faces, the reactions, the music. Music director Bijibal, after giving that title song, stays quietly, until the mystery thickens and you begin a merry-go-round between Thrissur, Coimbatore, and Mumbai. That is when a gang of policemen led by actor Girish Kulkarni, Muthu and co, begin a long investigation.

The thriller part falls into familiar terrain, and the tension is kept alive. While all of it leads to a standard end, with an unexpected answer waiting for you, you feel underwhelmed by the backstory. You wait for something more to roll out. You can, if you like, make many deep connections with the very last image the film ends with, to make sense of what it all means. But it does not add to the cinematic experience.

After everything though, if you go back to earlier frames, like the very first shot of Vineeth Sreenivasan that the film began with, you might begin to feel for this strange character.

Disclaimer: This review was not paid for or commissioned by anyone associated with the series/film. TNM Editorial is independent of any business relationship the organisation may have with producers or any other members of its cast or crew.

Thankam Movie Review (2023)

26 Jan 2023

Saheed Arafath's superb 'Thankam' disguises an emotional "friendship story" as a police procedural

Thankam Movie Cast & Crew

The opening visual and the opening stretch of Saheed Arafath's Thankam tell two different stories. The visual is that of loneliness: we see a man facing the sea, his back to us. There's a whiff of melancholy about the image, something we sense even though it's just a few frames. And then, we cut – suddenly and dramatically – to this same man in the midst of the opposite of loneliness. He is in the midst of bustling crowds, in the midst of the gold business of Thrissur. His name is Kannan (Vineeth Sreenivasan), and he sells the gold jewellery made by his friend Muthu (Biju Menon). The opening credits appear over a song that's a dedication to Dhanalakshmi, the goddess of wealth, but note the sign outside Muthu's workshop: the name of his "company" is hand-written on a sad piece of cardboard. The business may deal with one of the most precious of metals, but it's clear that people like Kannan and Muthu are not exactly millionaires. Hence that opening visual of Kannan staring at the sea: it's a hint of a state of mind, a hint of things to come.

But in Syam Pushkaran's very clever and very deceptive screenplay, these things don't come at you the way you expect them to. We first get a glimpse of the relationship between Muthu and Kannan, who are family friends. Aparna Balamurali plays Kannan's wife, but like in most of Syam's writing, she exists in a corner of the film. I liked that she does not dissolve easily into tears, which tells us that circumstances that are not spelt out in the narrative have hardened her. The most important female player in the film is Ambika Chechi (Indira Prasad), who's a heavyweight in the gold trade. We may not see much of her, but her presence looms large when says things like: Once I cut off a relationship, it stays cut. She does not trust Kannan, so it's up to Muthu to make deals with her, while pretending to badmouth his friend. One such dealing tells us about all three corners of this triangle: about Muthu and Kannan, about Muthu and Chechi, and about Kannan and Chechi.

People are coloured by the oddest and most interesting traits. Muthu is a family man, but he likes whoring around. The film does not judge him, just like it does not judge Kannan for being a devout Hindu while doing borderline-shady things that we are taught "god will punish you for". (This devout Hindu also touches a crucifix pendant for luck. His belief is not limited by his religion.) In an exquisite scene, after Kannan bribes a cop with a gold chain, the cop snaps off the Dhanalakshmi pendant and returns it to Kannan. It's not something peculiar to the gold business. Even if we do bad things, we don't want to piss off the gods. That's something ingrained in many Indians, and this pendant gets a superb narrative arc of its own. The story is very contained, very intimate and personal. It could have taken place within any sprawling industry, but the risks and big monies involved with the gold trade raise the stakes. So there's more drama in the mix of the internal and the external.

What's internal, I will tell you later: for now, let's just say it involves Muthu and Kannan. But the external aspects of the story play out through two stretches involving the police. The shorter stretch is when Kannan is arrested, and the longer stretch is when Kannan goes missing in Mumbai. Both aspects of the screenplay have an aftermath. In the first stretch, we learn things that will put the ending in context: in other words, even though these are very "external" scenes involving interrogations and so forth, you keep getting details that will dovetail into the second stretch with the police and also tell us a lot about the "internals" of the characters. For instance, just look at how Muthu expresses his concern for Kannan at the police station. He simply stands still, but his face betrays all the emotion he's experiencing at this point. It's the exact same thing in a later scene at a morgue. The big-built Biju Menon's very "masculine" stoicism plays off beautifully against the smaller-built Vineeth's more "feminine" openness. He makes you want to give him a big hug and say things will be okay.

The third brilliant performance in Thankam comes via Girish Kulkarni, who plays a Mumbai cop investigating a Mallu case in Tamil Nadu. (His words, not mine). Biju gives an internalised performance because that's who Muthu is. Vineeth gives a semi-internalised performance because Kannan is revealed to us gradually, in layers: like in the scene where he shouts at Muthu and instantly apologises when he realises how much his outburst has hurt his friend. As if to compensate, Girish explodes like a grenade. Muthu may get the film's biggest "mass moment" when he apprehends a suspect in a movie theatre, but Vijay Sakhalkar – that's the Girish Kulkarni character – gets mini-mass moments all through, especially when he tackles a stubborn and uncooperative senior cop. This constant mix of the internal and the external sets Thankam apart from a pure procedural like Rajeev Ravi's excellent Kuttavum Shikshayum . Like with gold sometimes, the procedural track here contains "impurities".

In fact, the whole procedural is a kind of deception -- almost like the deception at the heart of the story. When the rug is pulled out from under our feet at the end, when we learn that this is really a "friendship story" and the procedural is a a bit of a red herring, I sat there stunned, overwhelmed by emotion. You think you know people, and then you discover they come with their own "impurities". This is the big internal payoff. Relationships are complicated, and the innocents get easily deceived. No one is painted in simplistic shades. A small subplot about a man having an affair turns out to the advantage of the police, and we also get the small and unexpected detail that this man's supposedly "Tamil" wife knows Hindi. Another investigative stretch results in a bit of family comedy when a girl casually reveals that she has a boyfriend. This boyfriend's shirts are as colourful as his language and his character.

Thankam is a terrific return to form for Syam Pushkaran, whose Joji left me somewhat cold. It was too tight, too composed. Thankam is looser, and allows a lot more space for character details as well as details about the business world the story is set in. If you are an emotional fool, like I am, you will carry home the film's closing image – which complements the opening image of the man staring at the sea. The finality of the speech that accompanies the close-up of the face, the fact that this facet was hidden all along, the truth that we can never really know people – this is all utterly devastating. The more practical people among the audience may say: If you have a problem, why not simply share it with someone? But everyone's different, and that's why human beings are so fascinating to put under a microscope. Like the gold jewellery Muthu makes, we are all filled with "impurities".

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Baradwaj Rangan

National Award-winning film critic Baradwaj Rangan, former deputy editor of The Hindu and senior editor of Film Companion, has carved a niche for himself over the years as a powerful voice in cinema, especially the Tamil film industry, with his reviews of films. While he was pursuing his chemical engineering degree, he was fascinated with the writing and analysis of world cinema by American critics. Baradwaj completed his Master’s degree in Advertising and Public Relations through scholarship. His first review was for the Hindi film Dum, published on January 30, 2003, in the Madras Plus supplement of The Economic Times. He then started critiquing Tamil films in 2014 and did a review on the film Subramaniapuram, while also debuting as a writer in the unreleased rom-com Kadhal 2 Kalyanam. Furthermore, Baradwaj has authored two books - Conversations with Mani Ratnam, 2012, and A Journey Through Indian Cinema, 2014. In 2017, he joined Film Companion South and continued to show his prowess in critiquing for the next five years garnering a wide viewership and a fan following of his own before announcing to be a part of Galatta Media in March 2022.

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'Thankam' review: A formulaic but engaging murder mystery

National award winner Girish Kulkarni and Vineeth Thattil David shine in 'Thankam'

Thrissur, the cultural capital of Kerala, is a city known for its ardent love for gold. With over 2,000 workshops that make gold ornaments, Thrissur supplies more than 80 per cent of the gold ornaments sold in Kerala. Gold ornaments made in Thrissur are sold not just in Kerala, but in other states, as well. The journey that certain gold agents of Thrissur make to supply the product (read unaccounted gold) to other state businesses got a nickname—‘gold ride’. Thankam (which means gold in Malayalam) is a movie that investigates a tragedy faced by a gold agent named Kannan (Vineeth Sreenivasan), who had gone on a gold ride to Mumbai.

The one-liner of the plot looks simple; however, Thankam had a narrative that was not easily executable. The plot development happens mainly in three locations—Thrissur, Coimbatore and Mumbai. And, its characters speak five different languages. Also, the nuances of the gold business are not something that common people are familiar with. All these challenges were handled decently by director Saheed Arafat and writer Syam Pushkaran to build up a decent murder mystery.

The film starts at a slow pace. As it enters into an investigation phase, the pacing gets better. Pushkaran has a great talent for integrating dry-wit into serious moments; he has shown that skill in Thankam's script, too.

The film is, in a way, formulaic—it uses some of the most common tropes in murder mystery films such as a mysterious injury, a go-getter and keen investigator and an absent murderer. The film is almost a success in taking the audience also in a ride along with the investigators to solve the tragedy faced by Kannan. It also has a final deduction scene where the investigator would finally puts all the missing pieces together. Then there is another commonly used trope of murder mysteries which is used in the climax of the film. But revealing it would be a spoiler. As the film enters its final act, this reviewer, however, felt a sudden drop of energy—a kind of sluggish treatment that killed the thrill!

Vineeth Sreenivasan was an apt choice for the character of Kannan. His inherent innocence and warm smile are used effectively to create an image of Kannan in the audience's collective mind. Kannan is presented as an overtly religious person—who would even subject his body to a controversial temple ritual, garudan thookkam . Religious faith is a coping mechanism for many who are in financial hardship and psychological distress. However, Thankam does not make Kannan’s big financial troubles obvious to the audience until the final act. And, this made it hard for this reviewer to connect or empathise totally with Kannan and the fatally absurd decisions in his life.

Muthu (Biju Menon) who plays the role of Kannan’s partner has the maximum screentime in Thankam . Menon, who is one of the finest actors in contemporary Malayalam cinema, essays his character—which demands controlled acting—with ease. However, it is two-time national award winner Girish Kulkarni (who plays a Maharashtra cop) and Vineeth Thattil David (who plays the role of a friend of Muthu) who steal the show in Thankam . Aparna Balamurali, who plays the wife of Kannan, does not have much screen time. However, she has some fine emotional moments in the plot. And, she delivers them perfectly.

The background score of the film was kind of irritating, overdramatic and loud at certain junctures. Editing and creating the final form of this film was not an easy task. Though the film follows a linear narrative, it does have a slew of flashbacks. And, editor Kiran Das decently integrated them into the plot without many jumps or jerks.

Bhavana Studios which created critically-acclaimed movies like Kumbalangi Nights and Joji —and is jointly owned by director Dileesh Pothan, actor Fahadh Faasil and Pushkaran—produced Thankam . The film does have an interesting premise, however, it is unlikely to become a film that will earn a place on par with the previous films from Bhavana Studios.

Thankam director: Saheed Arafath

Thankam caste: Vineeth Sreenivasan, Biju Menon, Aparna Balamurali, Girish Kulkarni, Vineeth Thattil David

Thankam rating: 3/5

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Trailer Video

Thankam Malayalam Movie

In Thankam, director Saheed Arafath and writer Syam Pushkaran offer an engaging police procedural that plays out as an investigation film. The movie is about the ins and outs of gold dealing in Thrissur. Biju Menon's Muthu and Vineeth Sreenivasan's Kannan do a job that requires them to travel long distances to transfer pure gold. Something bad happens on one of their journeys, which requires police intervention.

I cannot discuss the specifics of the plot because this is a thriller. What works wonderfully well in Thankam is the authenticity in the treatment of the characters. The investigation takes place in two states, so it requires the officers to speak or at least understand multiple languages.

One of the states in the film is Maharashtra, so the makers appropriately use a seasoned actor like Girish Kulkarni for a local police officer's role. A Maharashtra-born actor, Kulkarni is wonderfully understated as the police officer heading the investigation. The actor never really shouts at people as he probes them in the film, but he is still such an imposing figure. This character is written so well for the most part that it is reminiscent of cops in some hard-hitting Hindi films. Cops in Malayalam cinema are not usually this good.

The film also maintains a sense of authenticity in even the most minute aspects. Whether a piece of action takes place on the road or in a movie theater, we see the investigators going there while going through the rigors of a procedural. The makers do not really skip any part of the investigation, whether it is small or large. They also use actors from those parts of India that are appropriate for the locations where the story takes place. Besides, the use of a translator helps maintain that sense of authenticity.

It is amazing, then, that they make one minor error in character treatment towards the end that takes the shine off an otherwise engaging thriller. Without spoiling anything, let me just say that it involves the treatment of Biju Menon's character. The attempt to pander to the mass appeal of Biju Menon is unnecessary in such a realistic film. It is probably the only misstep in Thankam, but it keeps the film from being a truly taut thriller instead of an engaging one. This minor blemish aside, the writing for all the characters is top-notch.

The ending may not be hard to predict, but it has an interesting idea and the movie is more of a procedural. Midway through the film, you may make some mental calculations about the climax, and one of those guesses will most likely turn out to be right. Nevertheless, it is also to the movie's credit that we are even making those calculations constantly. After all, this is a procedural.

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Thankam review: A well-made thriller with superb performances by Biju Menon and Vineeth Sreenivasan

ScriptaScriptwriter Syam Puskaran comes up with a subject that's never been explored in the Malayalam film industry to date.writer Syam Puskaran comes up with a subject that's never been explored in the Malayalam film industry to date.

Published:Jan 26, 2023

A poster of Shaheed Arafath's 'Thankam' movie. (Twitter)

A gripping whodunnit!

Thankam (Malayalam)

Cast: Vineeth Sreenivasan, Biju Menon, Aparna Balamurali, and Girish Kulkarni
Director: Shaheed Arafath
Producer: Bhavana Studios
Music: Bijibal
Runtime: 2 hours 25 minutes
Cast: Salman Khan, Katrina Kaif, Emraan Hashmi, and Revathy
Director: Maneesh Sharma
Producer: Aditya Chopra
Music: Pritam Chakraborty
Runtime: 2 hours 35 minutes

Thankam means gold in Malayalam. A movie that recently received trolls from social media was titled Gold.

So, when a movie with a similar title was released just one month later, it naturally generated curiosity.

From the trailer, the audience got the impression that Thankam was a thriller.

However, as mentioned by its scriptwriter Syam Puskaran, the film was a different attempt.

The writer takes a pause from his realistic stories and enters a different genre with this latest release.

The movie is about trust, love, friendship, gold smuggling, and investigation.

Crime thriller

Thankam is the story of close friends Muthu (Biju Menon) and Kannan (Vineeth Sreenivasan). They are also partners in a gold business.

Their trust and the economic problems faced by Kannan are one part of the story. Aparna Balamurali plays the role of Kannan’s wife.

An educated young person, Kannan is in the gold-making business in Thrissur, known as the gold capital of India.

His travel to Mumbai to sell gold and the sequence of events that follows forms the plot of the film.

The film is truly a change from Syam Pushkaran’s usual realistic films.

This thriller has Girish Kulkarni as a Maharashtra cop investigating a case related to Kannan’s gold dealings. His performance as a shrewd Mumbai policeman is laudable.

Content is king

Directed by Saheed Arafath, the movie is refreshing as it deals with a subject that hasn’t been explored much in Malayalam films.

Renjith’s Puthanpanam had a similar context of smuggling, but wasn’t good enough to set the cash registers ringing.

One highlight of Thankam is the combination between Biju Menon and Kannan. The duo has a good screen presence.

Vineeth Sreenivasan is surely getting some good roles. His role in Mukundan Unni Associates received appreciation.

as KANNAN in Thankam. #Thankam in Theatres from tomorrow. Book Now! pic.twitter.com/tOp2EY0k7I — Vineeth Sreenivasan (@Vineeth_Sree) January 25, 2023

Biju Menon, who is known as a natural actor, plays a good role as Muthu, an innocent person.

As the story progresses, the audience gets the feeling that there is someone pulling the strings from behind the curtains. But the climax is not a usual one; it’s very unlike crime-investigation stories.

The motive behind the crime and its after-effects are something that society must have witnessed, if not directly then indirectly.

Technically good

A poster of ‘Thankam’. (Twitter)

Thankam showcases some excellent locales from Tamil Nadu and Mumbai.

As the story of the movie shifts from Thrissur to Mumbai, Gautam Shankar captures some great visuals.

The music and background score by Bijibal is important for the movie. The title song, a devotional kind, gives a different mood to the plot.

The movie starts as a normal story of gold agents. Later, when the investigation part starts, the audience slowly fastens their seat belt.

It has lighter moments provided by Biju Menon and Vineeth.

The editing by Kiran Das also goes well with the movie.

Thankam is a gripping thriller that keeps the audience hooked on different layers of the story, without getting bored at all. It is a sure winner!

Million Happiness in 24 Hrs. Watch full trailer – https://t.co/95lHTEfadv #THANKAM in theatres from Jan 26. pic.twitter.com/LCX5WMDI6z — Vineeth Sreenivasan (@Vineeth_Sree) January 19, 2023

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Cast & crew
User reviews

Muthu (Biju Menon) and Kannan (Vineeth Sreenivasan) are Gold Agents from Thrissur, the Gold Capital of India. The movie portrays their travel to Mumbai to distribute gold and the following m... Read all Muthu (Biju Menon) and Kannan (Vineeth Sreenivasan) are Gold Agents from Thrissur, the Gold Capital of India. The movie portrays their travel to Mumbai to distribute gold and the following mishaps they face at their journey. Muthu (Biju Menon) and Kannan (Vineeth Sreenivasan) are Gold Agents from Thrissur, the Gold Capital of India. The movie portrays their travel to Mumbai to distribute gold and the following mishaps they face at their journey.

Saheed Arafath
Prinish Prabhakaran
Syam Pushkaran
Vineeth Sreenivasan
Girish Kulkarni
27 User reviews
13 Critic reviews
2 nominations

Top cast 45

Vijay Sakhalkar

Sasi Pillai
(as Indira Bhai Prasad)

Kannan's Mother
Anshuman Joshi
Bhaskar Dhanduke
Yashpal Sarnath
Pranav More
Kannan's Daughter
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Soundtracks Devi Neeye Written by Anvar Ali Produced by Bijibal Performed by Najim Arshad

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Aug 20, 2023
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January 26, 2023 (India)
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Runtime 2 hours 25 minutes

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'Thankam' movie review: Fairly grim and engaging investigative procedural

The first thing that stands out about Thankam is its overall look. The dominant green hue (with a bit of yellow occasionally creeping in) makes the film look as though it spent way too much time inside a hospital, except when the characters step outside. I don’t recall seeing the sun, except in that one dreamy shot of a character framed against the backdrop of a sunset. I don’t apply a negative connotation here. Cinematographer Gautham Shankar, who established himself as a talent worthy of note in Theevandi, opts for muted colours and minimal lighting, which I think is apt for a subject of Thankam’s nature. You can’t shoot something like this with bright lights and colours.

Thankam reveals itself to be a certain kind of movie from very early on, but it keeps its true intention reserved for its haunting finale, which becomes something of an emotional payoff. Biju Menon and Vineeth Sreenivasan play Muthu and Kannan, respectively. They are in a not-so-ethical gold business. Naturally, there is bound to be a whiff of menace in the air, which gets more oppressive as we go further into the plot. When one character meets with an untimely and unpleasant death, every detail points to a possible murder. Naturally, this sets off the principal characters on a journey to grab the culprit.

Thankam is at once a road movie and procedural. And when Syam Pushkaran writes anything, you don’t expect him to cook up a textbook, been-there-done-that version. You expect him—and every filmmaker who directs his scripts —to pay special attention to characters and their dynamics. Given how the Tamil, Marathi and Hindi-speaking characters speak in their mother tongue, with Malayalam subtitles for both these lines and the English ones, I guess it is safe to call Thankam a ‘pan-Indian’ film.

Like any of Syam’s previous works, Thankam is a film that relishes spending time with its characters, especially Girish Kulkarni’s Maharashtra-based cop, whose involvement becomes crucial considering the victim’s connection to Mumbai and Tamil Nadu. I’m glad to see an actor of Girish’s calibre getting plenty of screen time here. Sure, Biju and Vineeth are in fine form -- especially the latter, who, just like another actor-filmmaker, Basil Joseph, keeps surprising us with his recent choices.

But, if there’s one actor I’m going to focus on the most in this review, it’s going to be Girish, who gives my favourite performance in the film. One of his impressive qualities is that he belongs to the ever-reliable ilk of actors like Manoj Bajpayee and Irrfan Khan—they are not repetitive. Girish, who once donned the khaki in Anurag Kashyap’s Ugly, is not retreading the same territory in Thankam. Instead, he gives us someone who remains understated for the most part, even though he is prone to sudden outbursts when things don’t go according to plan. While not exactly a saint, Girish is also quite committed to his duty. He is in a hurry to solve the case as soon as possible.

By now, everyone familiar with Syam’s oeuvre is aware of his remarkable ear for dialogues and character interactions. In Thankam, some of the finest writing gets reserved for Girish, who plays this cop as someone constantly thinking of inventive ways to extract testimonials from anyone he believes has suspect motives. My favourite stretch is the one where he puts a senior police official in an uncomfortable situation. The former doesn’t let the rank aspect slow him down. He demonstrates a lesson on how to handle an intimidating superior. It recalls that scene in The Godfather-II, where a young Vito Corleone turns the situation with Fanucci to his advantage when the latter, in a coffee shop, tells the former that he needs to “wet his beak”.

I was also surprised at how Pushkaran found time for humour in a largely grim affair; it shows up in areas you least expect it. Vineeth Thattil David, known for his brief laugh-inducing appearances in Angamaly Diaries, Ayyappanum Koshiym, and Gold, is relegated to a full-fledged comic position this time. For instance, a tricky interrogation moment involving a young girl takes a hilarious turn when Vineeth Thattil tries something that the cops couldn’t imagine doing. The girl starts speaking, and her mother’s and relatives’ subsequent reactions are priceless! I was also surprised by a ‘mass’ moment—the only one in the film—that occurs inside a movie theatre. I wonder if this is Syam Pushkaran’s way of sneaking in a mini homage to Spadikam and Thalapathy.

Phew! I can see that I got this far in my review without revealing any spoilers. While maintaining the same stance, let me also add that when the final revelation arrives, the intended effect, I think, is not so much about who did what but throwing light on a way of life and how frustrating it is when those whom you assumed were ‘close’ to you keep you in the dark when it comes to certain things. In that sense, Thankam oddly reminded me of the recent Tovino Thomas movie Dear Friend in that it also conveyed the essence of some truths hitting you like a sledgehammer.

At the same time, the film wants to keep us at a distance, not letting us get emotionally involved. And as in Dear Friend, Thankam steers clear of melodrama. I guess the point of view it wants us to take is that of Biju Menon’s Kannan. Does that make Thankam a coming-of-age drama? I guess so. It’s not really a one-time process. It occurs at various points in our life, and the lesson that gets imparted each time is different. While Thankam is not as dark as Syam’s Joji, I’m not sure it has the latter’s replay value. If anything, it is, like Joji, another testament to the fact that Syam can also venture into considerably grim territories.

Film: Thankam Director: Saheed Arafath Cast: Vineeth Sreenivasan, Biju Menon, Aparna Balamurali, Girish Kulkarni, Vineeth Thattil David Rating: 3.5/5

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Thankam (2023) Review: A Thriller that Doesn’t Hurt

In 2021, I was introduced to Fahadh Faasil as the anti-hero of the crime drama Joji , and perhaps that’s the movie that introduced me extensively to Malayalam cinema. Joji was inspired by Macbeth, a play by William Shakespeare and was directed by Dileesh Pothan and fantabulously written by Syam Pushkaran. Interestingly, we have the above three producing Thankam (Gold).

The film begins with a montage that introduces the audience to the intricacies of Thrissur’s gold industry. The montage also establishes the tone of the film, which is both divine and perplexing but unmistakably about an indefinite and uncertain risky business of some kind.

After the song montage, you will notice the slice-of-life cinema alongside friendship taking its shape. You are now not just an audience. But also part of the societal milieu introduced to you by the directors. You are breathing the same air the characters are breathing. So you relate to them as you would relate to your neighbor. That being said, we never know what is happening in our neighbor’s head, do we? The neighbor is a distant relation. In fact, how much do we know about our family, relatives, and friends? Towards the end of Thankam, we may be left overwhelmed, but that’s the reality of life.

From start to finish, Kannan (Vineeth Sreenivasan), the working-class hero, dominates the scene, whether he is alive or dead. He controls the situation and is portrayed as a spiritual person carefully executing his responsibilities of the Thrissur’s gold trade. Kannan is the ‘gold rider’ who transports the ornaments to jewelers across Mumbai with utmost care. In exchange, he receives biscuits made of raw gold coins, which are then turned into ornaments by his friend and associate, Muthu (Biju Menon).

Trouble starts when Kannan convinces Muthu and Bijoy (Vineeth Thattil David), their other partner, to accompany him to Coimbatore on a business-cum-enjoyment trip. He promises them great Tamil Nadu food and sex workers to satisfy their sexual needs.

Kannan takes Muthu’s car. But he accidentally leaves the car keys behind. Then the encounter with the police at the state borders begins. All of a sudden, we are introduced to the crime linked to this trio. We are then introduced to police officer Jayanth Sakhalkar who cannot be messed with. Thankam literally gets lost introducing to us Kannan and Muthu and their friendship.

You notice the camaraderie between Kannan and Muthu. However, the directors seem to have ignored the fact that the audience knows too little about the Thrissur Gold Industry. Or did they want to inform us only that much? But the secretiveness of Kannan’s activities cannot be bailed out when the information on the industry is kept hidden. Nevertheless, that aspect is taken care of by the other active and capturing realism of the story.

All of the characters have their corrupt stories to tell. Whether it is the supposedly law-abiding cop or the civilians who ought to be manifesting reverence to the laws and regulations about them. The policeman takes their gold chain bribe. The three monkey replica friends are fishy, icky, and creepy around women, and their vocabulary is questionable. However, none of this is made humorous but rather political.

Language or vocabulary, as I mentioned earlier, has to be noted in the movie as the directors choose not to exploit any language as foreign and to be fancied. But they have logically made the character choices who would authentically utilize the languages of their choice and even not attempt to barge into a language that they aren’t familiar with. None is shown as against any language or forced actually to know the Hindi language, which earlier films have portrayed. Or, generally, is the stereotype based on which other assumptions hang loose.

Each of the stunning characters, despite the emotions they had to harbor, has taken the onus to present exact and relatable persons from the leads to the lesser screen time actors. The women characters could still have more screen presence. Although it is not required for the plot, Malayalam cinema should think critically about its female leads and give them a chance and representation in the mainstream.

Thankam, nevertheless, doesn’t hurt you to be a thriller. It is the most relaxed version of a thriller I have watched in recent times. It is a perfect ensemble with a perfect message at the end of it all. The filmmaker well represents the sociocultural complexities, as is the gold used as an example.

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Thankam Review: Engaging Thriller

Thankam delivers an engaging drama that fans of crime-solving tales will enjoy, recommends Mayur Sanap.

Thankam , co-produced by Malayalam cinema's blue-eyed boy Fahadh Faasil, shimmers.

Thankam , which means gold in Malayalam, showcases the gritty world of gold smuggling with a tragedy at its centre. For all the right reasons, the film is yet another display of Kerala's penchant for realism in cinema.

The film tells the story of friendship between Muthu (Biju Menon), Bijoy (Vineeth Thattil David) and Kannan (Vineeth Sreenivasan), who run a gold smuggling business in Thrissur.

The film takes a dark turn when one of them mysteriously dies in Mumbai during accepting the consignment of gold. What follows is a no-frills procedural by the Mumbai police officer Jayanth Sakhalkar (Girish Kulkarni) and his Marathi-speaking team, who travel to Kerala to crack the case of murder.

Director Saheed Arafath smartly meets the demands of the genre by revealing just enough to keep you engrossed. The film may not break new ground in procedural storytelling, but stays refreshingly true to the raw authenticity of its world which is very much rooted in its appeal.

The slow-burn narrative style allows the viewers to be a part of the mystery right alongside the cops who are investigating the case.

Syam Pushkaran's screenplay doesn't rely on shocking twists, but the drama mainly works due to its focused writing.

Every time we feel like we have figured things out, the story takes a detour and we are taken by surprise.

The film moves in mysterious, murky, tics embossed by Gautham Sankar's shadowy but sleek cinematography and Bijibal's apt score.

In spite of being slow-paced, Thankam keeps one hooked till the thought-provoking conclusion.

While a few elements may look and feel familiar, it is done in a gripping enough manner which proves to be a satisfying thriller.

Although it's a Malayalam film, the characters speak Marathi, Tamil, English and Hindi. It is heartening to see the makers have incorporated all these languages in the script instead of forcing non-Malayali actors like Girish Kulkarni and the Tamil actors to speak or dub Malayalam.

The acting by the awesome cast, spearheaded by the tender and sensitive Biju Menon and the enigmatic Vineeth Sreenivasan, is a treat to watch.

Sreenivasan's unusually cold and unwavering Kannan feels like a solemn take on his character from last year's Mukundan Unni Associates and he shines yet again.

Aparna Balamurali ( Soorarai Pottru ) plays Kannan's wife and lets her eyes express the emotional turmoil she is going through.

But for a talent like Balamurali, I wish there was more heft in her character to leave her mark.

Making his Malayalam debut here, Marathi film veteran Girish Kulkarni transitions from comedy to seriousness with great precision and becomes a show-stealer.

This talented bunch of actors play off each other with ease as you relish watching them navigate the intense situations they find themselves in.

Ultimately, Thankam is an old-school procedural thriller, one that allows its grim atmosphere and slowly unfolding story to take centre stage.

While it's not the most action-packed, it delivers an engaging drama that fans of good crime-solving tales will enjoy.

Thankam streams on Amazon Prime Video.

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Thankam Movie Review: Syam Pushkaran's script, Saheed Arafath's direction and performances make it a much-watch

Thankam opened in cinemas on january 26. the film features vineeth sreenivasan, biju menon, girish kulkarni and aparna balamurali. directed by saheed arafath, it is a must-watch, says our review..

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Thankam hit theatres on Jan 26.
The film's cast include Vineeth Sreenivasan, Biju Menon, Girish Kulkarni and Aparna Balamurali.
It is directed by Saheed Arafath.

Release Date: 26 Jan, 2023

Fahadh Faasil and Friends (Syam Pushkaran and Dileesh Pothen) backing a film means it will be a good one and with Syam Pushkaran writing Thankam, the audience will be in for a treat.

Directed by Saheed Arafath, Thankam (Gold) features Vineeth Sreenivasan, Biju Menon, Girish Kulkarni and Aparna Balamurali. Kannan (Vineeth) and Muthu (Biju) are good friends and partners in the gold jewellery business in Thrissur. While Muthu is a goldsmith, Kannan markets and sells products to various jewellery shops in South India and Mumbai.

One day, Kannan, Biju and their friend go to Coimbatore to make a delivery and Kannan is caught by Muthupettai (Tamil Nadu) cops on the suspicion of smuggling gold to Jaffna. The three men are not charged and return home to Thrissur but things don’t augur well. Kannan next to heads to Mumbai to make a gold delivery and is found dead. Neither Muthu, Kannan’s wife (Aparna Balamurali) or Muthu’s boss, know what has happened and are as baffled as the audience is at this point. Who was Kannan really? What led to Kannan’s murder? Is there a gold smuggling gang at play?

Syam Pushkaran has written such an intriguing and captivating story which is also highly unpredictable. Right from the get go, the audience is left guessing as to what the movie is about and what is going to happen in every scene.

Director Saheed Arafath had done a superb job of capturing Syam’s vision on screen and the two of them actually seem to be in sync in Thankam. It is difficult to believe that the writer and director of this film are not the same. The suspense and build-up on the film keeps you on the edge of your seat and the background music by Bijibal adds ably to this.

Thankam has a superb cast and Biju Menon, Vineeth and Girish Kulkarni are the stars of the show. The movie is thankfully devoid of song / dance routines which would have otherwise stilted the pace of the film and made one lose interest. One does wish that the writer had given us a deeper background into Kannan to understand his state of mind and situation. This would have added more intensity to the climax in the film.

As an investigative drama, Thankam is one of the best films that have come out in recent times. Don’t miss it!

Rating 3.5/5 Published By: shweta keshri Published On: Jan 26, 2023 --- ENDS --- ALSO READ | Student misbehaves with Aparna Balamurali at Kerala college event. She reacts

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Thankam movie review: Precious!

Thankam (Gold) is a travelogue within a police procedural, a friendship saga and a study of the human condition. It has its flaws, but its socio-cultural insights are priceless.

Cast: Biju Menon, Vineeth Sreenivasan, Aparna Balamurali, Girish Kulkarni, Indira Prasad, Vineeth Thattil David

Director: Saheed Arafath

Language: Malayalam with Tamil, English, Marathi and Hindi

“We’re Maharashtra police investigating a Mallu case in Tamil Nadu – it’s gonna be tough.”

This line spoken by a senior Mumbai policeman during a challenging probe captures the essence of the new Malayalam film Thankam (Gold) produced by Fahadh Faasil , Dileesh Pothan and Syam Pushkaran. Or wait…make that “partially captures”. Because Thankam is as multi-faceted as a film can get: a crime drama that flows into a police procedural across state borders, a friendship saga, slice-of-life cinema, a study of the human condition. Each time you think you have zeroed in on the genre it inhabits and the crux of what it intends to do, the next scene heads off in an unexpected direction, steered so smoothly by director Saheed Arafath ( Theeram ) and writer Syam Pushkaran ( Maheshinte Prathikaaram , Kumbalangi Nights , Mayaanadhi , Joji ) that the procession of plot turns and intermittent twists is never jarring.

Thankam kicks off as a story of friendship between Matthew a.k.a. Muthu (Biju Menon), Kannan (Vineeth Sreenivasan) and Bijoy (Vineeth Thattil David) who are involved in Thrissur’s gold trade. Trouble starts when the trio head out to Tamil Nadu for a business-cum-pleasure trip and their plans go awry. Later, a crime linked to them occurs in Maharashtra. Enter: the Mumbai police officer Jayanth Sakhalkar who is nobody’s fool.

Thankam defies most conventions of every genre into which it dips its feet. Its nature as a travelogue within a police procedural harks back somewhat to Rajeev Ravi’s excellent Kuttavum Shikshayum released last year. That film though focused entirely on the drudgery of police work and the lead characters’ journey from Kerala to the north and back, delving into their psyches and personal circumstances only to the extent needed to understand them within their professional sphere. Thankam , in contrast, spends considerable time on drawing out Muthu and Kannan before the police even come into the picture.

Trust Malayalam cinema in its latest Renaissance to abjure the formulaic treatment of friendships that cinema across Indian languages has favoured for decades. Instead of generating syrupy sentiments, Thankam , like last year’s Tovino Thomas starrer Dear Friend , calls on the viewer to consider the possibility of how little we may know of the persons closest to us.

Where Thankam stumbles is in its apparent assumption that the viewer is well-informed about Thrissur’s gold market. The nitty-gritty of the dealings and the reasons for the hush-hush-ness in Kannan’s work are thus not entirely recounted with clarity. That’s a mistake, but the captivating realism in the storytelling overshadows this drawback.

Thankam is consistently under-stated barring a marginal tonal shift in a single fight scene in which it is left to two Malayali men to save the day in a commercial-cinema-esque fashion. It’s hard to grudge the director that tiny detour though, since it is ever so slight and is not designed to make the people of any other community look foolish (this is unlike Hindi cinema that caricatures southern Indians when not erasing them).

The beauty of Thankam lies in the empathy it kindles for its characters despite painting them as pronouncedly grey. A corrupt policeman takes a gold chain as a bribe, but on noticing a sacred pendant hanging from it, respectfully detaches it and returns it to the bribe-giver. Muthu, Kannan and Bijoy deceive their families, they are creepy around certain women, their vocabulary is sometimes icky, but their commitment to their friendship is never in doubt. For the record, their creepiness is not treated as comedy – in this and other ways, Thankam unobtrusively reveals its politics. In an India where beef has become an explosive issue often sparking violence, Thankam , like Malayalam cinema in general, normalises beef-eating not just among minorities but through the conduct of Kannan who is shown to be a devout Hindu.

Thankam is also incredible in its use of language, becoming yet another example of southern Indian cinema that the Hindi film industry can emulate in this regard instead of doing what Hindi cinema has done for too long: pointedly ignoring the existence of all Indian languages other than Hindi except when occasionally throwing in stereotypical dashes of Marathi among gangsters, Punjabi for comic relief and English to denote coolth. Malayalam cinema has had its own mess-ups with language over the years, with too many filmmakers randomly inserting Hindi and English into dialogues incompatible with the settings of their stories, in a manner that suggests that they look up to these languages as being more hip than their mother tongue. Thankam falls into a more evolved category of film that treats Malayalam with respect, features other languages in the dialogues purely in the interests of authenticity and casts actors accordingly. As Ariyippu (Declaration) and Kuttavum Shikshayum did. In Thankam , the writer picks from a smorgasbord of languages – Malayalam, Tamil, English, Marathi and Hindi – depending on each character’s background and, in the case of those among them who know more than one, the practical requirements of a given moment.

Accurately and with humour, Thankam additionally spotlights an inexplicable reality: that the average non-English-speaking Malayali is terrified of English and would prefer to speak broken, even incomprehensible Hindi than risk English. Hridayam had spelt it out in black and white in a VO: “There’s something that any Malayali who’s born and brought up in Kerala fears the most wherever they go – English.” Why this is so is a mystery that even Jayanth Sakhalkar may struggle to solve. Thankam also has a scene in which Jayanth assumes he needs an interpreter to communicate with a Tamilian woman but it turns out that she knows Hindi. Not that all Indians are duty-bound to know Hindi, but this is a neat touch because it nixes the propaganda that has for decades sought to paint Tamilians as north India hating, Hindi-hating xenophobes simply because they have unrelentingly opposed Hindi imposition and supremacism.

Leading a near-perfect cast, Biju Menon, Vineeth Sreenivasan and Vineeth Thattil David share an easy chemistry as they traverse a whole gamut of emotions during the course of the story. Each one is dubious in his own way yet none of the actors goes down the easy path of making their characters repulsive. Vineeth Sreenivasan gives Kannan an aura of something indefinable even before his problems are revealed. Biju and the other Vineeth pull off humour without being off-putting in dire scenarios. Marathi film veteran Girish Kulkarni, who’s making his Malayalam debut here, is simply outstanding.

Though the three friends and Jayanth get the most screen time, multiple supporting characters are made distinctive by the writing with the aid of an impressive ensemble cast. The satellite players best served by the screenplay and given more space in the narrative than the rest are the businessperson Ambika Chechi (Indira Prasad), the no-nonsense Malayali police officer in the Mumbai force and his pliable junior who is a tech expert. Sadly, Ambika is the sole female character with an identity independent of the men in this male-driven universe.

Aparna Balamurali plays Kannan’s wife. It would have been nice to see a star of her standing as a character whose actions move the plot forward at least at some point, but her only role is to be supportive and helpless. Aparna does her best within these limitations. A bunch of other characters walk in and out briefly yet make their mark belying the few minutes or seconds assigned to them: the Instagrammer in Tamil Nadu, the petty crook called Vicky whose cockiness dissipates in a flash, the woman who is tired of her philandering partner and that wayward partner all feel like real people pretending to be actors.

Thankam is well-cast, well-acted and suspenseful in a laidback way that is not common in thrillers. More than anything else, the film’s insights into socio-cultural intricacies are – like the metal from which it draws its name – precious.

Rating: 3.5 (out of 5 stars)

This review was first published in January 2023 when Thankam was released in theatres. The film is now streaming on Amazon Prime Video.

Anna M.M. Vetticad is an award-winning journalist and author of The Adventures of an Intrepid Film Critic. She specialises in the intersection of cinema with feminist and other socio-political concerns. Twitter: @annavetticad, Instagram: @annammvetticad, Facebook: AnnaMMVetticadOfficial

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Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) About Thankam

In this Thankam film, Biju Menon , Vineeth Sreenivasan played the primary leads.

The Thankam was released in theaters on 26 Jan 2023.

The Thankam was directed by Saheed Arafath

Movies like Paalum Pazhavum , Haal , Bharathanatyam and others in a similar vein had the same genre but quite different stories.

The Thankam had a runtime of 145 minutes.

The soundtracks and background music were composed by Bijibal for the movie Thankam.

The cinematography for Thankam was shot by Gautham Sankar .

The movie Thankam belonged to the Crime,Drama, genre.

Thankam User Review

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മനോഹരമാണ് ഈ ‘മനോരാജ്യം’; റിവ്യൂ Manorajyam Review

അരുണിമ കൃഷ്ണൻ

Published: August 31 , 2024 10:47 AM IST

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സ്വപ്നം കാണാനുള്ള അവകാശം എല്ലാവർക്കും ഉണ്ടല്ലോ! എല്ലാ മനോരാജ്യങ്ങളും ഒരേപോലെ നടക്കണമെന്നില്ല. എന്നാൽ ചില മനോരാജ്യങ്ങൾ അതേപടി നടന്നെന്നും വരാം. മനോരഥങ്ങളിലൂടെ സഞ്ചരിച്ച് അവയെ നേടിയെടുക്കുന്നവരുടെ പ്രയത്നവും കണ്ടില്ലെന്നു നടിക്കാനാവില്ല. അങ്ങനെയുള്ള സ്വപ്നങ്ങളുടെ കഥയാണ് ‘മനോരാജ്യം’ എന്ന സിനിമ പറയുന്നത്. ഓസ്‌ട്രേലിയയില്‍ ജീവിക്കുന്ന മലയാളി ജീവിതത്തിന്റെ കഥ.

വിദേശത്ത് പഠനവും ജോലിയും സ്വപ്നം കാണുന്നവരാണ് ഭൂരിഭാഗം മലയാളികളും. അതിനൊരു അവസരം കിട്ടിയാൽ അത് പാഴാക്കാതെ നാട്ടിൽ നിന്നും പുറത്തേക്ക് പോകുന്ന, അവരിൽ പലരും അവിടെത്തന്നെ സ്ഥിരതാമസം ആക്കാനാണ് ശ്രമിക്കുന്നത്. അപ്പോഴും കേരളീയതയെയും മലയാളത്തെയും മറക്കാൻ അവരിൽ പലർക്കും സാധിക്കാറുമില്ല. കേരളത്തിൽ നിന്നും ഓസ്ട്രേലിയയിലേക്ക് കുടിയേറിയ ചെറുപ്പക്കാരനാണ് മനു. മനുവിന്റെ ജീവിതത്തിലേക്ക് മിയ കടന്നുവരുന്നതോടെയാണ് അയാളുടെ ജീവിതമാകെ മാറിമറിയുന്നത്. ആത്മാർഥമായ പ്രണയം ഇരുവരുടെയും ജീവിതത്തിൽ ഉണ്ടാക്കുന്ന മാറ്റങ്ങളും പിന്നീട് വിവാഹിതരാകുന്നതോടെ അവർക്കിടയിൽ ഉണ്ടാവുന്ന ചില തെറ്റിദ്ധാരണകളും കൊച്ചു കൊച്ചു പിണക്കങ്ങളും ഒക്കെ മനോഹരമായി പ്രേക്ഷകരിലേക്ക് എത്തിച്ചിരിക്കുകയാണ് മനോരാജ്യം എന്ന ചിത്രത്തിലൂടെ സംവിധായകൻ റഷീദ് പാറയ്ക്കൽ.

ഇന്നത്തെ നമ്മുടെ ജീവിത സാഹചര്യത്തിൽ മൊബൈൽ എത്രമാത്രം ഒഴിച്ചുകൂടാൻ ആവാത്തതാണ് എന്നും ചിത്രം സൂചിപ്പിക്കുന്നുണ്ട്. അതിനോടൊപ്പം തന്നെ അനാവശ്യ സന്ദർഭങ്ങളിലെ ഫോണിന്റെ ഉപയോഗം കുടുംബജീവിതത്തെ എങ്ങനെയൊക്കെ ബാധിക്കാം എന്നും ചിത്രം പറഞ്ഞു പോകുന്നു. സാധാരണ ഗതിയിൽ പോകുന്ന ആദ്യ പകുതിയും സംഘർഷങ്ങൾ നിറഞ്ഞ രണ്ടാം പകുതിയും ഒപ്പം മനോഹരമായ ഒരു ക്ലൈമാക്സുമാണ് മനോരാജ്യത്തിനുള്ളത്. ഒരു മനോഹര കുടുംബചിത്രം എന്നതിനോടൊപ്പം തന്നെ സമൂഹം ചർച്ച ചെയ്യേണ്ട ഒരു പിടി വിഷയങ്ങൾ കൂടി ഈ ചിത്രത്തിൽ കോർത്തിണക്കിയിട്ടുണ്ട്. നല്ലൊരു കഥയുടെ പിൻബലത്തിൽ സൗഹൃദത്തിൻറെ വലിപ്പവും കുടുംബ ബന്ധത്തിന്റെ ആഴവും ചിത്രം പങ്കുവയ്ക്കുന്നു.

അവിവാഹിതൻ, 100 കുട്ടികളുടെ ‘പിതാവ്’! ടെലഗ്രാമിലൂടെ 1.3 ലക്ഷം കോടി രൂപ; സ്വന്തം കുഞ്ഞിനെ കൊലപ്പെടുത്തുമെന്ന് ഭീഷണി

ചേരിയിലെ കുടുസ്സുമുറിയില്‍ ആ കാഴ്ച, വന്നവർ സ്തബ്ധരായി; ഭരതന്റെ ജീവിതം മാറിയ നിമിഷം; പിന്നെ ‘ലളിത’സുന്ദരം

GLOBAL CANVAS ‘ഹോള്‍ഡമോര്‍’ എന്ന മരണ താണ്ഡവം: ‘മോദിയെ കണ്ടതിനു പിന്നാലെ അത് പറഞ്ഞത് അഹന്ത’

ഓസ്ട്രേലിയയുടെ മനോഹാരിതയും പ്രകൃതി ഭംഗിയും വളരെ മനോഹരമായി ചിത്രത്തിനുവേണ്ടി പകർത്തിയിട്ടുണ്ട്. മനോഹരമായി ചിട്ടപ്പെടുത്തിയ ഗാനങ്ങളാണ്

ചിത്രത്തിൻറെ എടുത്തുപറയേണ്ട മറ്റൊരു പ്രത്യേകത. റഷീദ് പാറക്കൽ, രഞ്ജിത മേനോൻ എന്നിവരുടെ വരികൾക്ക് യുനസിയോ, നിഖിൽ സന എന്നിവർ ചേർന്നാണ് ഈണം പകർന്നിരിക്കുന്നത്.

മനുവായി ഗോവിന്ദ് പത്മസൂര്യയും നായികയായ മിയ ആയി രഞ്ജിതയും പ്രേക്ഷക മനസ്സ് കീഴടക്കുകയാണ്. നവാസ് വള്ളിക്കുന്ന്, ഗോകുലൻ, ജസൺവുഡ്, റയാൻ ബിക്കാടി, യശ്വി ജസ്വൽ തുടങ്ങിയവരാണ് ചിത്രത്തിലെ മറ്റ് കഥാപാത്രങ്ങളെ അവതരിപ്പിച്ചിരിക്കുന്നത്. ഇൻഡീജീനിയസ് ഫിലിംസിന്റെ ബാനറിൽ സി കെ അനസ് മോൻ ആണ് മനോരാജ്യം നിർമ്മിച്ചിരിക്കുന്നത്. എഡിറ്റർ നൗഫൽ അബ്ദുള്ളയാണ്. ഓസ്ട്രേലിയൻ ഫിലിം ഫെസ്റ്റിവലിൽ മനോരാജ്യം തിരഞ്ഞെടുക്കപ്പെട്ടിരുന്നു.

ചിരിക്കാനും അതോടൊപ്പം തന്നെ ചിന്തിക്കാനും ഉള്ള ഒരു പിടി കാര്യങ്ങൾ പകർന്ന് തരുന്ന മനോരാജ്യം കുടുംബപ്രേക്ഷകർക്ക് ഏറെ പ്രിയങ്കരമാവും എന്നുള്ളത് ഉറപ്പാണ്.

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Bharathanatyam Movie Review: An entertaining and self-aware family comedy

Bharathanatyam ( 3 / 5).

Of late, there has been a noticeable decline in the kind of rooted, light-hearted comedy entertainers centred on middle-class families or extended families that were popular in the 80s and 90s. Krishnadas Murali's directorial debut, Bharathanatyam , falls into this category, with its unmistakably old-fashioned premise and a familiar conflict often seen in tearjerkers. However, the filmmaker effectively puts a fresh comedic spin on this, consistently delivering laughs. The film also cleverly plays with its title, Bharathanatyam . While it shares its name with the classical Indian dance form, here, it serves as a playful wordplay on the actions of a prominent character, which forms the crux of the story.

Director: Krishnadas Murali

Cast: Saiju Kurup, Saikumar, Kalaranjini, Divya M Nair, Nandu Poduval, Swathi Das Prabhu, Sreeja Ravi, Abhiram Radhakrishnan

Bharathanatyam opens by introducing us to Sasidharan, fondly known as Sasi (played convincingly by Saiju Kurup), the secretary of a local temple committee. The film wastes no time establishing Sasi’s role in the community and his life at home, where he shoulders the responsibilities of his close-knit family living in a traditional dominant caste household. Sasi's family includes his father Bharathan (Saikumar), his mother Saraswathy (Kalaranjini), his elder sister Santhi (Divya M Nair), after whom their house is named, his younger sister, Sreelatha (Sruthy Suresh) and his youngest brother Arun. Santhi and Sreelatha's husbands (Nandu Poduval and Swathi Das Prabhu, respectively) also live in the same house.

The casting is spot-on, with each character getting ample screen time, and most actors fitting their roles perfectly, especially in portraying the dynamics of an extended family living under one roof. While Divya deserves special mention for her nuanced portrayal, Kalaranjini emerges as the scene-stealer. The veteran actor brilliantly captures the essence of a concerned mother and wife, whose world revolves around her family's honour and reputation, with her unique voice and dialogue delivery. Her comic timing, combined with her ability to convey a range of emotions subtly, makes her a standout performer in the film, demonstrating how underutilised she has been as a seasoned performer. Her on-screen presence in her own distinctive voice—the result of an unfortunate incident in her early career—is a delight in itself. As Bharathan, Saikumar is excellent, conveying both the physical struggle and the emotional turmoil of a man whose secrets are on the brink of being exposed.

Krishnadas' script adeptly portrays the family as a unit obsessed with societal perceptions, a theme that resonates with many traditional households. This is humorously highlighted when Saraswathy worries about potential gossip regarding her son-in-law's unemployment. The narrative also shifts intermittently to Sasi's colleagues on the temple committee, played effectively by Abhiram Radhakrishnan, Sohan Seenulal, and the director Krishnadas himself, each with distinctive traits. We see Sasi and his committee members devising a plan to introduce a new ritual to exorcise the devotees' houses to cast away evil so they can make more money. This subplot serves as a sharp commentary on human gullibility and the exploitation of superstitions. It also ties into the proceedings in Sasi's household throughout the film, without being overtly didactic.

Additionally, the film works as a subtle critique of societal norms and the tendency of communities to interfere in personal matters. Through its characters, particularly Abhiram and Sasi's fellow committee members, the film reflects on the pervasive nature of gossip and societal scrutiny. Krishnadas' talent as a promising filmmaker begins to shine in the first hour, where he subverts what could have been a melodramatic revelation into a comical scenario, and he also makes sure to cleverly reference a quintessential film that dealt with a similar theme in a self-aware manner.

(Mild spoilers)

The film does leave some room for debate, particularly regarding the portrayal of cheating. While one could argue that it normalises infidelity by humanising the actions of Bharathan's character and offering a somewhat simplistic resolution, the film ensures that both Saraswathy and Rukmini (an endearing Sreeja Ravi) are treated with dignity.

(Spoilers end)

The film's second half, where most of the situational comedy unfolds, is where Bharathanatyam truly finds its stride. The laugh-out-loud moments are plentiful, leaving the audience in splits more often than not. While the narrative maintains a light-hearted approach throughout, the ending could have been handled with more finesse. The sudden emotional shift and the resolution of certain character arcs, particularly those of Saraswathy and Sasi, could have used more build-up. Nevertheless, this minor shortcoming does not significantly detract from the overall experience. The background score is impressive, particularly during the comic scenes. However, there are moments, especially towards the end, when the narrative takes a brief emotional shift, where the score could have been toned down to better suit the mood.

While Bharathanatyam does not break new ground in terms of its story, its treatment is enjoyable, with identifiable characters and a neat running time of just two hours that hardly overstays its welcome. The film also thankfully consciously avoids delving into excessive melodrama, a pitfall for stories involving family secrets.

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