Face (of) the Future!

After 7 years of struggle for the right role and the right film, "Puthiya Mugham" could well be Prithviraaj's ticket to superstardom in Malayalam cinema. Puthiya Mugham is not great cinema, it is downright escapist and has hardly anything new to offer in terms of content, but it is the vision of a new director and the novelty with which Prithviraaj has been presented that makes it a winner.

Puthiya Mugham starts off as a regular college film with the customary College group dance, ragging of first year students, one way love, a priest- principal who handles rogues with ease et al but gets into serious business the moment Prithviraaj and Bala come face to face over a trivial issue born out of proportion by Bala's trusted friend on campus.

I am not sure whether Diphan- Sindhuraj duo did this on purpose but the message that the film tries to drive home is very relevant in today's times- that the youth of today do not need anything significant to get an adrenalin rush! The entire plot of Puthiya Mugham rests on an issue that could have been resolved across a table but does not get resolved because the protagonists want to run a show of one upmanship that finally ends with the death of one of them!

Prithviraaj looks dashing and carries off his role with panache. He struggles with the mridangam though! He even exposes his much written over torso and scores some extra points with the show. Bala grinds his teeth deep into his first well written role in Malayalam. The dubbing artiste is a bit loud but Bala more than makes up for that with his performance. Priyamani is adequate as Anjana while the rotund Meera Nandan needs to watch her weight! The guy who plays Bala's friend is a revelation not only in acting but also with his agility during the dance number. The rest of the cast with the exception of Jagadeesh put up a good show.

It is good to see Deepak Dev in action after a long time- "Picha vacha" and "Kottum Kottum" are good numbers. The costumer messes up with Prithviraaj and Priyamani during the song sequence shot in Malaysia so much so that you dont even care for the lyrics. The technicians do a good job though the backdrop of the Picha vacha song is a bit too over the top! The action sequences are the best that Malayalam cinema has seen in recent times though they smell a bit too much of Anniyan, Ghajini and Ayan!

To sum up, Puthiya Mugham is very high on paisa vasool entertainment and will definitely end up as Prithviraaj's biggest hit till date! Debutant director Diphan has had a good start and let's hope he continues making good entertainers in future too...