Mariyam Mukku: Lacking in direction

When you watch James Albert’s directorial debut Mariyam Mukku , you get the feeling that the camera began rolling and the characters marched in on their own, said aloud their practised lines and put up a performance when the director was looking the other way.

For, this story of the eponymous coastal village appears much like a ship without its captain lost at sea. The protagonist, Felix (Fahadh), who loses his parents as a child, is brought up by the crooked Mariyan Asan (Manoj K. Jayan), who lords over the village. Mariyan expects complete obedience from his gang of henchmen, headed by Felix. The relationship between the two sours when Felix's childhood sweetheart Salomi (Sana Altaf) re-enters his life and tries to reform his ways. Around the same time, people in the village claim to have witnessed miracles performed by the presiding deity of the village.

How the ‘miracle’ changes the lives of the villagers forms the rest of the story.

Though the script penned by the director himself is in no way exceptional or new, the storyline had enough potential to make for an entertainer with its characters and anecdotes typical of coastal villages and a stream of divine intervention. Instead, the characters here lack depth and the actors portraying them look lost and without purpose. And this, with a cast of stellar actors is quite unpardonable. Things do pick up in the second-half of the movie, but missing all throughout is a director’s deft touch.

Film: Mariyam Mukku

Director: James Albert

Cast: Fahadh Faazil, Sana Altaf, Manoj K. Jayan, Joy Mathew