Aaraattu Twitter review: Audience lauds Mohanlal’s one-man show in ‘unrealistic’ mass masala entertainer

The movie, directed by B Unnikrishnan and scripted by Udaykrishna, hit theatres on February 18

Mohanlal in a still from Aaraattu

Mohanlal’s much-anticipated ‘mass’ entertainer Aaraattu hit theatres today, with the fans shows beginning from 8am onwards. The movie, which is the biggest Malayalam release since the pandemic with claims of it being screened in over 4000 screens, marks the return of the actor in the ‘mass masala’ movie genre after a gap of six years.

Fans have been excited for the movie’s release – especially considering that the actor’s previous film Marakkar: Arabikadalinte Simham didn’t really make the right noise in the box office despite their lofty expectations. Mohanlal is also due for a big box office hit, even though his OTT releases such as Drishyam 2 and Bro Daddy have gone on to create records.

Also read: Aaraattu movie review: All-out Mohanlal show works only when it doesn’t take itself too seriously

Aaraattu, which is directed by B Unnikrishnan and scripted by Udaykrishna, is a ‘mass’ entertainer revolving around Mohanlal’s character of Neyyattinkara Gopan, who reaches the village of Muthalakotta in Palakkad after he leases land there for pisciculture as part of a deal to level agricultural land for a loan shark. But as time goes on, the villagers, Neyyattinkara Gopan’s allies and enemies realise that there is more to his agenda than helping out the people.

The movie has a huge star cast featuring Shraddha Srinath, Sidhique, Johny Antony, Vijayaraghavan, Lukman Avaran, Saikumar and Nedumudi Venu. What makes the first half exciting is the references of previous Mohanlal-starrers including Narasimham, Irupathaam Noottaandu, Chithram, Aaraam Thampuran, Pulimurugan, Aaryan and His Highness Abdullah.

The film also has three major action sequences that are picturised well. AR Rahman also appears as himself in the movie, in which a concert plays a major backdrop for the film’s finale. Here's a round-up of the Twitter reviews after the first few shows of Aaraattu.

Many have hailed Mohanlal's one-man show in the movie, lending enough charisma and flair to the pacy entertainer.

While the first half of the movie drew a lot of praise, many viewers felt the predictable and bloated second half shrugged off the momentum. Fans took to Twitter to share how the second half reduced the film that could have gone to be an engaging mass entertainer into an average action drama.

Given that there is no major releases till Mammootty's Bheeshma Parvam and Tovino Thomas' Naaradhan on March 3, Aaraattu is expected to get a decent run in theatres till it drops on Amazon Prime Video.

Also read: Mohanlal explains why son Pranav wasn’t in the forefront promoting Hridayam

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