Thankamani Movie Review: A Miscast Dileep Finds Himself Fumbling to Steer This Stale Revenge Drama (LatestLY Exclusive)

Thankamani Movie Review: Thankamani is a movie about struggle. When I wrote 'struggle', I didn't mean the movie's depiction of the struggle of a village it aims to replicate on screen. No, sir, no. In Thankamani, you see the struggle with the actors trying to put up even a modest performance. You see the struggle in the writing to go beyond melodramatic tropes and failing at that. You see the struggle in the camera in wanting to remain in one place. You see the struggle in the editing to stitch together some semblance of a compelling film. And you feel the struggle in yourself to remain in the seat, waiting for the damn movie to be over so that you can make a hasty exit to freedom. Thankamani: Petition Filed in Kerala HC Seeking Removal of Rape Scenes From Dileep Film, Calling Them ‘Pure Creation of Imagination’.

Thankamani is connected to a real-life incident that happened in 1986, where the inhabitants of a Kerala village called Thankamany were subjected to abhorrent police brutalities during the course of a night. Just a year later, in 1987, PG Vishwambaram made a movie called Itha Samayamayi, which was inspired by this incident.

A Stale Revenge Drama

Fast forward to 2024, we have director Ratheesh Reghunandan, who also wrote the screenplay, attempting to use the same tragedy to craft a revenge drama in Thankamani. Unfortunately, the result is a tepid narrative that oscillates between brutality and boredom. The film begins with the grisly murder of a prominent politician, where the killer leaves a torn page from an old calendar behind. Arpitha Nath IPS (Pranitha Subhas) leads the investigation, and the police hastily conclude that a serial killer is at large when they find out a similar murder happened in the past, involving a cop.

Watch the Trailer of Thankamani:

Of course, he is not a serial killer, as we learn the murderer is Abel Joshua Maathan (Dileep). Even if you forget your lover's name, you will not forget his name since it is empathically repeated, time and again, by both the protagonist and the cops wanting to catch him. Sadly, the name utterance has the same punch value as Dileep's latest failed attempt to be massy.

Abel's murderous spree is rooted in events from years prior, linked to the dark night of Thankamany where he endured family loss, police torture, and wrongful imprisonment. Flashback sequences dominate the film, depicting Abel's once blissful married life and the tragic turn of events. In the present day, Abel embarks on a revenge spree, pursued by a group of notably inept police officers.

Milking a Real Tragedy

The 1986 Thankamany incident, one of the most brutal cases of police atrocities, deserves a thoughtful cinematic treatment.

Thankamani is not that movie.

By focusing more on a fictional person and the circumstances that lead him to go on revenge years later, Thankamani does little justice to the tragedy. What we get here instead is an overwrought tale that leaves your senses utterly numb by myriad factors, from severe miscasting of actors to excessive melodrama used to emphasise the onscreen brutality. The movie milks the incident to drive a commercial entertainer for its star, who is yet to notice the change in winds for Malayalam cinema. Christopher Movie Review: Mammootty’s Cop Saga Does an ‘Encounter Killing’ to Progressiveness of Malayalam Cinema.

Dileep Still Finding His Lost Touch

So this brings me to Dileep, who is still struggling to figure out how to place himself in the new wave of Malayalam cinema, and that has been the case even before he was accused, arrested and released in the sexual assault case. The actor looks quite out of place throughout the film, be it as an old man or when he is shown 'younger', and with the premise not offering any scope for comedy, Dileep loses even that little scope to shine.

His (mis)casting as the protagonist becomes a major problem when we are supposed to care for his love story, which also forms the emotional punch in the climax. Instead, I was left baulking at the clearly age-inappropriate pairing of him and Neeta Pillai, who deserves better than to be stuck in such karachil roles and instead be cast opposite actors more of her age.

No Respite From Other Aspects

Even worse is the theatrics of Pranita Subhash, who is utterly not right for the role of a no-nonsense officer. She is clearly seen having difficulty performing normally while trying to sync her lip movements to speak an unfamiliar language. Her expressions are also wildly inconsistent, going from a blank face to putting on an exaggerated display of emotions.

None of the other actors get to shine. Manoj K Jayan plays a cardboard villain with reductive screentime, while John Vijay goes Ham ultra pro max in trying to replicate Rajan P Dev's villainy from the '90s. The talented Sudev Nair gets sidelined when the main plot conflict comes in. I don't know what Ajmal Ameer was doing in the film except putting up an inexplicable glowering expression in the little screen time he has. Kerala Crime Files Review: Aju Varghese and Lal’s Malayalam Series Is a Well-Knit Investigative Thriller That Loses Its Grip Near the End.

Even from a technical standpoint, Thankamani falls short, particularly in the camerawork. The cinematography vacillates between attempting a stylish display for an action entertainer and capturing the chaos of a tragedy, resulting in an overwhelming mix of movements. The violence is pretty vicious, but the theatricality infused in those scenes blunts the impact. It goes way overboard too, so if you are planning to watch the film with your little kids, please don't! The only aspects that felt a bit sufferable were the background score and the locations.

Final Thoughts on Thankamani

There is a scene where Abel accuses a politician of exploiting the misfortune of Thankamany, and it is hard not to chuckle at the hypocrisy there when the film also ends up doing the same. Instead of doing onscreen justice to a real-life tragedy, Thankamani ends up being a tragedy in itself, grappling with a muddled narrative and an overabundance of dramatic excess. With not even an awkwardly cast Dileep providing any respite, the movie becomes a tedious lesson in how not to make films on real-life tragedies.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Mar 08, 2024 09:34 AM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).