The initial sequences of Lal Jose’s Thattumpurath Achuthan gives one the impression of a different kind of movie, unlike the one promised by the posters or unlike how it eventually turns out to be. We see images of a village that is slowly rebuilding after being ravaged by the recent floods. A woman who has lost her husband is shown shifting to a new house with her child. The floods are even present in the dreams that the child sees.
- Starring: Kunchakko Boban, Hareesh Kanaran
- Direction: Lal Jose
But then, the movie takes off on quite a different tangent from the child’s dream. Most of his dreams come true, and our protagonist Achuthan (Kunchakko Boban) gets featured in one such unfortunate dream. The dream is the device that the movie uses to show us what is going to happen in Achuthan’s life, a few minutes before it actually happens.
Achuthan has this knack of getting stuck in people’s attics. While it invites trouble initially, the attic here has some symbolic purpose. Lal Jose depends on that over-used trope of the lead character being a human version of Krishna, something which we have seen repeated in various movies since Nandanam . Although, much of it is in a lighter vein. So, if the actual Gods are up in the sky, the ones in human forms are apparently in the attic, listening to the troubles of people, and taking steps to save them.
Off-track
Lal Jose, who used to be one of the hit-makers of Malayalam, has been out of form for quite some time. He continues in the same vein here too. Kunchakko Boban, one of the stars with the maximum number of releases this year, also has been a disappointment with his script choices. Too many characters and too many subplots happen in the movie, with not one of them carrying enough punch.
Even the ‘romance’ between Achuthan and the woman whom he is out to help, is a one-way affair. She hardly has even two lines of dialogues to deliver. Achuthan, up above from the attic, showers blessings on everyone except the viewers.
