PremiumMarakkar – Arabikadalinte Simham movie review: Superfluous halves impede Mohanlal’s insipid period drama
While the use of graphics is commendable for a movie made on a budget of less than Rs 100 crore, the makers do stay too long in these scenes, stretching the film. The battles in both halves have scenes that might have seemed smart on paper but are insipid on screen, and doesn’t quite add momentum to the proceedings
Last Updated: 12.27 PM, Dec 02, 2021
Story: Born to a family that has a legacy of fighting against the invading foreign forces, Mohammed Ali aka Kunjali Marakkar IV faces the wrath of the Portuguese in his formative years when they kill his kin and is forced to escape to North Kerala. Over the decades in the Zamorin kingdom, his fame grows as he takes from the rich and helps the poor much to the ire of the noblemen. But as Portuguese forces once again prepare to invade the kingdom, the Zamorins appoint him as their naval chief. The story chronicles his battles with the foreign fleet along with betrayals by those who had pledged their support to him.
Review: A story on the Zamorin naval chief Kunjali Marakkar IV was something that the film’s director Priyadarshan had said was on his mind, ever since he wrapped up the production of Kaalapani – a big budget film in 1996 starring Mohanlal and revolved around pre-independence struggles against the backdrop of the cellular jail in Andaman and Nicobar Islands. What truly made that film stand out was amid its patriotic storyline, it also had an emotional core revolving around its protagonists, essayed by Mohanlal and Tabu. This is often overlooked while showcasing the narrative of an epic period film and yet is the most engaging aspect that connects the viewers to its characters. For the best part of Marakkar: Arabikadalinte Simham, the filmmaker seems to have let this slide, leading to a movie that is mounted on a big scale – thanks to its sea battle sequences – but is ultimately a drab entry to the formidable cannon of Mohanlal and Priyadarshan.
The film tries to tackle a huge arc – starting from the teenage years of Kunjali (played by a spirited and agile Pranav Mohanlal), his growth as a legendary pirate and outlaw, his deputation as the Zamorin naval chief to his latter years where he had to deal with politics from the members of Zamorin’s court and betrayals. The backstory of Kunjali and his family that does seem extraneous consumes almost 50 minutes of the already lengthy movie that is three hours long.
By the time the film does pick up some speed, the audience are thrust into a battle sequence. While the use of graphics is commendable for a movie made on a budget of less than Rs 100 crore, the makers do stay too long in these scenes, stretching the film. The battles in both halves have scenes that might have seemed smart on paper but are insipid on screen, and doesn’t quite add momentum to the proceedings.
Marakkar: Arabikadalinte Simham is also a tale of two halves. While the first one is an arc that starts and ends with a personal vendetta of Kunjali, it doesn’t achieve what the makers were aiming for as this gets lost in the superfluous tale that unfolds in a rather haphazard mode. The second half though is more focused and it’s where Priyadarshan’s skill of storytelling comes in. He puts a love story between Kunjali’s faithful sidekick Chinali and a Zamorin minister’s daughter, Aarcha (Keerthy Suresh), to bring about the conflict that takes the story forward. Here too, the logical loopholes are plenty. It’s almost as if the writers were trying to patch up bits of information they gathered with their imagination. But at least it could make the viewers connect somewhat to its characters, even though the ideas required some more thought. The death of a key character through a misperception is almost laughable.
While Mohanlal is quite sprightly as Kunjali, he is bogged down by what the script has to offer. Despite his earnest efforts, the actor is left with delivering dialogues that seem forced. The rest of the cast, however, deserved better. Manju Warrier, Prabhu, Keerthy Suresh and Suniel Shetty don’t have much to offer in the film. Hareesh Peradi, Arjun Sarja and Ashok Selvan as Mangattachan and his two sons, respectively, are probably among those whose characters fleshed out a bit in the movie and that gives them more space than the rest. It’s also a concern that though the movie could have had so many iconic characters, none of them are memorable – bar for Prabhu Thangudu, for comic reasons.
S Thirunavukkarasu’s cinematography along with Siddharth Priyadarshan’s VFX do make for some standout moments in the movie. The background score of Rahul Raj, Ankit Suri and Lyell Evans Roeder lacks the punch that an epic period film required and this adversely impacts the movie in a lot of portions that could have used a rousing track.
Verdict: While Marakkar: Arabikadalinte Simham is an earnest effort from Priyadarshan and team to elevate Malayalam cinema to the next rung, the movie suffers due to its length, insipid characters and expansive storyline narrated in a rather simple manner. Save for the special effects in the naval warfare sequences, when it comes to big-budget period films, Priyadarshan’s Marakkar doesn’t top Kaalapani.