Urumi is one of those well crafted films that you rarely ever see in Malayalam. As the tall and sturdy Krishnadas (KD) and as the gallant and fearless Chirakkal Kelu Nair, Prithviraj has made an entry to several hearts through the fictional yarn, which illustrates the epic tale of a man whose mission was to kill the Viceroy of Portuguese Empire in India, Vasco da Gama. Well crafted and beautifully scripted, the story is told in two generations, one, the modern day generation who are oblivious of their history, and the other, personalities from the past who fought bravely for their land.
The film is a perfect blend. With an ideal cast, riveting cinematography, tight editing, solid script and top notch direction, no wonder the film made its way to the Indian Panorama section of International Film Festival of India. It will be shown here in the World Cinema Section of the International Film Festival of Kerala.
At a time when historical movies barely ever happen in Mollywood, Santhosh Sivan has shown immense courage to come up with a big budget period movie involving a huge star cast which includes Prabhudeva who played Vayyali, Nithya Menon who woos the audience with her flirtatious role as Chirakkal Bala, Genelia D'Souza (as Arackal Ayesha), who made a decent debut in Malayalam, and Arya as Thankachan and Chirakkal Kothuwal. Jagathy Sreekumar, as usual, has succeeded in immortalising the character of the effeminate villain Chenichery Kurup. Other noteworthy performances come from the visiting actors, Robin Pratt (as Vasco da Gama), Alexx O’Nell (Estêvão da Gama), Amole Gupte (Chirakkal Thampuran) and Ankur Khanna (Chirakkal Bhanu Vikraman). Santhosh Sivan merged Greek mythology into a traditional deity with Vidhya Balan’s character Makkom, which the normal audience might find quite confusing and mysterious.
Santhosh Sivan, known for his charismatic cinematography excels in direction and has done perfect justice to the script penned by Shankar Ramakrishnan, who had earlier impressed the audience and critics equally with his Island Express . Editing by the National Award winning Sreekar Prasad is slick, and music by Deepak Dev is engaging and suits brilliantly with the mood of the movie.
http://www.urumithefilm.com/
