Spoilers ahead…
Biju Menon and Vineeth Sreenivasan are aces in Syam Pushkaran’s deceptive screenplay, where things don’t come at you the way you expect them to.
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.
You can read the rest of the review here:
https://www.galatta.com/malayalam/movie/review/thankam/
And you can watch the video review here:
Copyright ©2023 GALATTA.
rsylviana
February 7, 2023
Ok wow , another exquisitely written review on the very same day. Come on BR, tell us what were you smoking before writing the reviews that they are oozing this much philosophy ! (Not that I’m complaining, just curious)
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Senthil S
February 8, 2023
I really loved this movie and was left numb by the climax. Maybe it’s that reason why so many reviews criticized the climax. It’s a shame that the film didn’t work commercially, but understandable given the general sentiment about it. Pretty much every review, everyone I talked to, said the same thing. “Let down by the climax.”
There’s a realistic sense of emotional disconnect we feel, just like how Muthu feels when he hears the news at the end. I guess that can come off as “unsatisfying,” especially if you’re viewing it as a investigation movie that is obliged to give a solution at the end. As a character study though, it’s pretty exquisite. I love the contrast of Muthu being someone who’ll see prostitutes, but also be very childlike and innocent. Kannan’s apparent confidence that really has a heavy undertone of desperation and tragedy (“Sir, please don’t get violent. I’m showing you respect. I haven’t committed anything illegal”) was so intriguing. It immediately reminded me of Fahadh’s Viju Prasad in the Kanyakumari portions of Trance. Both characters haunt you long after the film wraps up.
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Senthil S
February 8, 2023
As an aside, you should really watch Dear Friend if you haven’t. I think someone who connected with Thankam will definitely find something interesting and stimulating about that film, even if it isn’t complete satisfaction.
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Sam
February 23, 2023
BR, nice review. Please also try to watch the other recent malayalam release Iratta with 2 Joju George making it double bonanza 🙂
Its still in theatres (not sure if it’s there at Chennai though) and may come to ott in another 2,3 weeks. It’s a brilliant cinema, possibly the best malayalam film of the year so far. Catching it up in theatres, if possible, will be the best option imo.
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musical v
February 26, 2023
Superb movie.
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musical v
February 26, 2023
And superb review.
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pr
March 20, 2023
Thank you so much rangan for this review. I didnt expect someone else to feel the way i felt about this movie.It was such an eye opening reveal for me too about the point the writer was trying to make at the end about do we really know our friends and family well enough. Do people truly share anything with their friends?
I havent seen other indian language films explore this point. But in malayalam, I have seen some films deal with this. Dear friend with tovino dealt with the same thing. How much we hide from our friends and family.
The screenplay for this movie was so taut that it kept me on the edge of my seat. This writing is far superlative especially when compared to a movie like iratta. Iratta had such lazy writing, with the writer throwing in every vulgar, offensive, low brow problems for mere shock value .
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pr
March 21, 2023
Spoiler alert
@senthil.
I think the problem people had with the story was that the audience wasn’t shown vineeths’ backstory. So him committing suicide at the end might have been a big deal for his close friends like biJu menon or his wife, who thought they knew him well, but they didnt.. But audience didnt care bcoz for them, Vineeth was a random guy with a family who was doing gold business. Thats all they knew about him from the few scenes in the beginning. They didnt know vineeth’s life well enough and so wasn’t invested in or sympathetic about his suicide.
Now one understands why Jithu Joseph had to put in all those lagging but sweet little family moments in drishyam in the first half for the audience to feel a connect with and to care about georgekuttys’ plight.
But to me personally it made no difference. I saw it as a police investigation drama and I was glued to my seat till the end. I loved how they built up the intrigue throughout the movie. And since its a malayalam movie, i knew they were going to end it superbly and not as a poor copy of some bgrade hollywood movie.
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Anu Warrier
March 24, 2023
Just watched this last week. What a beautiful film! I had a ‘Huh?’ moment at the end as well, but accepted it too as something that often happens. We never know a person as well as we think we do. Thanks for the review. 🙂
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Rocky
April 1, 2024
A friend recommended and pressurized me to watch Garudan, and I finally did watch it. It is a really good watch .
Suresh Gopi dialog delivery however is very mechanical. But the plot, script and suspense is all Dishyam 2 level.
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Rocky
April 1, 2024
Was surprised to see no mention of Garudan at all on the blog?
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praneshp
April 1, 2024
@rocky: We saw Garudan at home, was it anything more than a timepass OTT watch? The lead actor was pretty horrible, the others were bearable at best, and I dunno what about the storyline was Drishyam 2 level. Lot of twists but nothing that was unpredictable.
The John Wick reference was awesome though
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Rocky
April 1, 2024
praneshp- agree on the lead actor- he was behaving more like a superstar than a super cop.
I mentioned Drishyam 2 in terms of meticulous planning shown …..can’t say much without spilling spoilers .
the twist towards the end ( about the eagles ) , I did not see coming…….
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MANK
April 4, 2024
That’s Suresh Gopi for you. He was much worse during his superstar days in the ’90s- his dialogue delivery (especially an obsession with English dialogues) was intolerable. He is from that school where good acting means behaving and speaking dialogues with the clarity, artificiality and unemotionality of a news reader. Prithviraj is a descendant of Suresh Gopi in this department.
Yeah, I hardly see any reviews of films written or directed by Midhun Manuel Thomas on this blog. MMT wrote Garudan and he recently directed Abraham Ozler. Compared to Ozler, I would say Garudan is a minor classic. Ozler is a total loss. It’s also on OTT.
Garudan has at least a rounded plot where a direct personal conflict between the protagonist and the antagonist is clearly established. The manner in which the antagonist gets back is rather contrived and far-fetched, but still it holds together and holds our interest for the most part, though no revelation was that unpredictable for me. I think the filmmakers were inspired by “Cape Fear” and yeah Drishyam 2 as well.
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MANK
April 4, 2024
Btw, Suresh Gopi has won a national award for his performance in Kaliyattam, where he was quite good as a Malayali “Othello” in this adaptation of Shakespeare’s tragedy by Jayaraj. .
He is now a member and star campaigner of the BJP in Kerala. He is contesting the upcoming elections from Thrissur constituency. PM Modi attended his daughter’s wedding that took place at Guruvayoor temple recently. In fact it was the PM who did the Kanyadaan
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Rocky
April 4, 2024
Thanks MANK for sharing the info on Suresh Gopi , I did not know that.
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Anu Warrier
April 4, 2024
MANK, aniya, Prithvi is like Suresh Gopi? You just broke my heart! 🙂
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MANK
April 4, 2024
Anu Chechi, long time no seee, where have you been. I missed you so much… 🙂
I’m glad that my comment provoked you to make an appearance .
yeah I believe especially in these kinds of roles Prithvi is a Suresh Gopi disciple. Watch Memories, seventh day etc etc Difference is that Prithvi is very passionate about the whole filmmaking process and quite knowledgeable too- about both the art and business of cinema. He is already directed one and is directing another. For Suresh Gopi, i don’t think films\acting amounted to anything more than a job to pay the bills.
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Anu Warrier
April 4, 2024
Thanks, Manish. Long story, but good to be back.
Still disagree with you about Prithvi though – far better actor than SG, who’s a ham. But yeah, P is extremely passionate and committed to cinema just as the other Young Turks in Malayalam cinema – which is such a joy to watch. As is their genuine camaraderie.
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KayKay
April 5, 2024
Ceh! All this SG bashing. You’re all right of course, I just have a soft spot for “The Commissioner”.
So, I’ll just say this, watch “Kaaval” for a wonderfully restrained and subtle performance from the man.
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