Thanmaathra fails to impress

I know I am going to attract quite a few frowns from readers for this post of mine. May be I expected too much from Blessy after that well made Kaazhcha. With a great actor like Mohanlal in tow and treading a less travelled road like Alzhiemer's, I thought Blessy would come up with a classic in Thanmaathra. Unfortunately, forget being a classic, Thanmaathra fails to exhibit some class! Thanmaathra is the story of Rameshan Nair (Mohanlal), a secretariat employee leading a contented family life with wife Lekha (Meera Vasudev) and kids (Arjun Laal and Niranjana). Rameshan is always thinking about his father (Nedumudi Venu) who leads a life of solitude in his village and cherishes the dream of returning to his village after retirement. He wants to make his son an IAS officer and leaves no stone unturned in working towards this. Things start taking an ugly turn when Rameshan Nair slowly starts losing his memory and gradually starts falling prey to Alzhiemer's. Everyone around him fails to understand his temporary memory losses but they take him to a doctor (Prathap Pothen) when he starts behaving like in home, at office. Rameshan is forced to discontinue his job and moves to his village. He goes back to his childhood and becomes completely oblivious of his family. All who matter to him are his father and his cousin, Ammukutty (Seetha Parthiban). The rest of the film deals with the degradation of the health condition of the protagonist and how his close ones try to take this fact in their stride. Predicatably, the movie ends with the death of Rameshan Nair. The problem with Thanmaathra lies in its script and casting. The film moves at a snail's pace especially in the second half and is full of melodrama and cliched dialogues that can even put a Kottayam based pulp fiction writer to shame. (Ironically, Blessy won the state award for Best screenplay for this film). The dialogues between Meera Vasudev and Arjun Laal are the worst. Songs have been tossed in unnecessarily and characters have been introduced to make the movie appealing in the commercial sense. Thanmaathra finally ends up neither being here nor there. Meera Vasudev turns out to be the weakest link in this film. The role of Lekha required a mature actress and Meera simply does not fill the bill. She looks more like a girl friend to Arjun Laal who plays her son and a daughter to Mohanlal who plays her husband. Her lip- syncing is atrocious and she makes a mess of the meaty role given to her. Arjun Laal shows promise. Niranjana is a pleasure to watch on screen but her character gets sidelined as the story progresses. The film exhibits a close bonding between the father and the daughter in the beginning but fails to carry it forward as it progresses. Nedumudi Venu and Jagathy Sreekumar add value to their characters, being the veteran actors they are. Seetha Parthiban is adequate. The real hero of Thanmaathra is Mohanlal- literally and figuratively. To take up the role of an Alzhiemer's patient at the height of superstardom is a bold step in itself. Add to this, a distastefully picturized love making scene with Meera Vasudev which was completely unnecessary and also the scene where Mohanlal confronts his colleagues in his brief. Not many superstars would be bold enough to take up characters and scenes like those. Blessy's interpretation of Alzhiemer's might not be clinically correct, but believe Mohanlal to come up with a performance that truly deserved the Best Actor award. Thanmaathra is definitely proof enough for the wide range of Mohanlal's histrionic abilities. The technical aspects of the movie are just fine. If at all, Blessy was careful with his script and in casting his leading lady, Thanmaathra could have ended up a classic!