Being at the top of his game, even after 40 years since debut, is no mere feat. Audiences are generally critical about rehashes but they have always lapped up Sathyan Anthikad! He has mostly served this in the correct proportion, till Innathe Chinthavishayam. Since then, it has been too mawkish; Oru Indian Pranayakatha maybe considered an exception.
Coming to Makal, his usual complimenting factors are for aid here. Reliable performers have always been the backbone to Sathyan Anthikad films. Makal has Jayaram, Meera Jasmine, Innocent, Siddique, etc. To play a father is something Jayaram could pull off in his sleep. Meera Jasmine and Devika Sanjay were good as the mother-daughter. Naslen trying to evoke laughter was as painful to watch as the final hour of the film. Sreenivasan speaking about organic food was unintentionally funny, considering how Srilanka is starving! But the director seems so confident about it; sigh!!
Some films take themselves light; some take it too seriously. Maybe some follow a method in between. But Makal wants to switch between these modes in the course of its running. On and off, highly dramatic sequences storm in and they are followed by low-brow comedies. This inconsistency in the screenplay gets worse in the final act, where the director applies a sudden break to everything; achieving nothing.
S. Kumar is a veteran. He pitches the perfect frame for Sathyan Anthikad. Rahul Raj has to be more specific about his notion of background score; his work wasn’t satisfactory. Vishnu Vijay’s songs were good. The length is never an issue as the director, despite all its shortcomings, didn’t bore the hell out of me. Phone screens were up in the cinema hall. Can’t blame them; why would they pay attention to a rehash when they get new things at their fingertips!
Review By Gautham Ravichandran
Overall, Makal is a trademark film that you expect from Sathyan Anthikad but with less soul.
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6